Man admits to murdering pair

To avoid death penalty, he pleads guilty to killing his mother and stepfather

A man possibly facing the death penalty after being charged with murdering his mother and stepfather in their Hemet home in 2020 instead will serve the rest of his life in prison after he pleaded guilty Friday in Superior Court in Banning.

As part of the deal worked out with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, Quintin Antony Mccracken, 44, will serve two sentences of life without parole, said Amy

Mckenzie, a spokeswoman for the DA’S Office. Mccracken will serve fixed sentences of 14 years and four months followed by indeterminate terms of 25 years to life.

Mccracken, a convicted bank robber who was released from federal prison in September 2019 after serving a 13-year sentence, admitted he stabbed to death 61-year-old Harriet Elaine Barnes and 75-yearold John Ronald Perez. Their bodies were discovered Aug. 3, 2020, after relatives called Hemet police because they had not heard from the couple for a few days.

Mccracken was eligible for the death penalty if convicted as charged because the DA’S Office filed a special-circumstance allegation of multiple murders. In addition to the murders, he pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and grand theft auto.

The victims’ family members were in court for Friday’s hearing, Mckenzie said.

Mccracken was identified as the perpetrator soon after the victims were located about 11 p.m. Aug. 3 in their house in the 5000 block of Corte Cerro, near Via Rivas, Hemet police said. The couple likely were killed two days before that, according to the criminal complaint.

Mccracken was arrested in San Bernardino, where he lived before moving in with his mother and Perez.

Mccracken