Man In Shadows

In March 2003, a jury again found Kenneth Leighton guilty of two counts of first-degree murder. This time the conviction stuck. Leighton was sentenced to two life terms in prison without parole.

Three months later, Randall Williams' second jury also found him guilty of the first-degree murders of Jamie Navaroli and April Mahoney. He was sentenced to two life terms without parole and two additions prison terms of 25 years to life.

A California appeals court upheld both convictions in June 2006.

The investigation left a lasting impression on Szabo and Galeria.

After spending five years working on the case, Szabo says, he grew close to the victims' parents and to the prosecutors. "It wasn't an easy case," the now-retired homicide detective says, "but once it was done, it was very satisfying to me."

For Galeria, who is still a detective in the West Valley Division, the case was more than the murder of two people.

"These murders appeared particularly vicious because it (was) an attack on the entire criminal justice system," he says. "When you have witnesses that are willing to testify against people and they end up being murdered themselves, that's kind of an attack on the whole system."