Cousins get life terms in 1973 slayings

SACRAMEnTo » Two cousins were sentenced Thursday to life prison terms in the 1973 shotgun slayings of two young girls in Northern California, said Deputy Yuba County District Attorney John Vacek.

Larry Don Patterson and William Lloyd Harbour were sentenced to five years to life in prison in the decadesold cold case, the maximum penalty under sentencing laws at the time of the crime.

For the same reason, the two men did not face the possibility of the death penalty in the deaths of 12-yearold Valerie Janice Lane and 13-year-old Doris Karen Derryberry.

“When she died, a part of me died with her,” Margarette Hasting, the mother of Valerie Lane, said in a statement that was read to the judge. “We were so cheated. Valerie died at 12 years old, and these guys have lived their lives, they are old men now.”

Patterson pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in December, while Harbour pleaded no contest to the same charges.