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LANCASTER (CNS) - A prosecutor told jurors Wednesday that a Lancaster man charged with murdering his four young children and their grandmother drove to the Los Angeles County sheriff's station afterward and asked a deputy to detain him because he had committed a crime, while a defense attorney said he was devastated and crushed by his wife's decision that their relationship was over.
Germarcus Lamar David, 31, is charged with five counts of murder for the Nov. 28, 2021, shooting deaths of his 11-year-old daughter, Namiyah, and his three sons, Germarcus Jr., 7, Kayden, 2, and Noah, 1, along with his mother- in-law, Ericka England, 51, who was babysitting the children while their mother was having dinner with friends.
The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders.
David is also charged with three counts of assault on a child causing death.
Deputy District Attorney Diane Hong told the Lancaster jury that the evidence would show that David "killed everyone," showing graphic photos of the victims, who she said had suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
David subsequently drove to the sheriff's department and wrote a note indicating that he committed a crime and was "sorry" after a deputy repeatedly asked why he thought he should be detained, the prosecutor said, noting that he subsequently told the deputy that there had been a "murder" at his house.
The mother of the four children returned from dinner with friends to find the house on Garnet Lane eerily quiet before spotting the bodies of her children and her own mother, the deputy district attorney told jurors.
"I think my husband killed my whole family ... I don't know what to do," the woman, Tyanna B., said in an emotional 911 call.
The prosecution will ask the jury to "deliver the only verdict that makes sense in this case -- guilty of all charges," Hong said.
One of David's attorneys, Anna Brief, said the prosecutor had shown jurors "the end of the story," but not the beginning or the middle. She said David had been a "pretty good dad," but told jurors that his relationship with his wife had some rocky points, including "some infidelity" in which he fathered a child with another woman.
The defense lawyer told jurors that David left his graveyard shift at work that night because his family was "more important" and he had to do something to "save this marriage."
Brief said his phone calls to his wife went unanswered and he unsuccessfully tried to find her.
"The tension was building as he tried to find her," David's attorney said.
The defendant was "devastated" and "crushed" when she said their relationship was over, according to the defense attorney, who said he was "blinded by her rejection of his love."
David's attorney did not specify what kind of verdict that the defense would ask the jury to return when the case wraps up.
David has remained behind bars without bail since he was arrested at the sheriff's station the night of the killings.
The children's mother told jurors that David had repeatedly called her that night and that he asked her during one of the calls if they were "really over" after she had dinner with friends to celebrate a birthday.
"I said yes. I said, `We can co-parent the kids,"' she recalled telling him.
She said she arrived home maybe 10 minutes after the call and noticed how quiet it was, then felt "panic" when she saw her mother and children.
The woman told jurors that she had her first child with David when she was 17 and that the two eventually married in 2014. She testified that the couple's relationship had ups and downs, including a restraining order that she said was issued after he slapped her and another violent encounter when he choked her.
"We were trying to go in the right direction and keep working on things," she said of the pair's final reconciliation.
The woman told jurors that she initiated divorce proceedings in 2020 after learning that her husband had just had a baby with another woman. She said she allowed him to return to the home to help with the children, but insisted that she wanted to proceed with the divorce -- to which he finally had agreed after the couple argued.
The children's mother said she had just hung up following a phone call catching up with a male friend two days before the killings when David "pulled a gun on me" and "aimed it at my stomach." She said she told David that the phone call was "nothing" and that she was "just having a conversation."
Under cross-examination by the defense attorney, the woman said he was "good for the most part" as a husband and father.
Jurors also heard from Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Amanda Arrieta, who first spoke with David when he came to the front desk at the Lancaster station at about 10:14 p.m. the night of the killings.
"He told me he wanted to turn himself in," she said, while adding that he was "very hesitant to tell me" further details.
On bodycam video shown to the jury, David is seen passing her a note
The deputy said David eventually passed her a note that read in part, "The reason I am here is because I did a crime and I am sorry."
The bodycam video showed David under further questioning, saying, "It was a murder at my house."
The deputy said she got the address from David, but subsequently determined that deputies had already been dispatched to the house.
Jurors subsequently heard a portion of an emotional 911 call made by the children's mother, in which she said she thought her husband had killed her family.
"He killed my babies and my mama!" she said in the 911 call. "He killed them."
Testimony is set to continue Thursday.