Three of five people charged with the gruesome murder of a Tsawwassen resident in California five years ago have been found guilty.
Last week, it reportedly took a Riverside Superior Court jury in California only 90 minutes to convict Jackie Lynn Dunson, Fernando Antonio Benavidez and Ronald Wesley Handwerk for the Nov. 27, 2007 slaying of 48-year-old William George Dobbs.
The three are to be sentenced June 22.
Two others, Rogelio Leon Zuniga and Robert Lee Dunson, brother of Jackie Dunson, are scheduled to be tried this summer.
All five pleaded not guilty.
Robert Dunson could face the death penalty if convicted, while the maximum penalty for the other defendants is life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Dobbs had recently bought a house in the Indio, California area and was staying there with his common-law wife when he went missing. The couple had been working on the house and was planning on returning to Canada in time for Christmas.
A passing motorist found his body on the side of an Indio road. Dobbs' throat had been slashed.
The Desert Sun newspaper reported the trial heard Benavidez met Dobbs at the Spotlight 29 Casino in Coachella and took the victim to Jackie Dunson's apartment in Indio, where Dobbs expected to pay her for sex.
Handwerk and Robert Dunson choked, kicked and punched Dobbs until he gave them his credit card and PIN number, the prosecutor alleged. Dobbs' beating and injuries were severe, including Robert Dunson reportedly putting a plastic trash bag over the victim's head and securing it with duct tape.
The newspaper reported the prosecution also stated Dunson and Handwerk later drove Dobbs' Cadillac Escalade to a bank to withdraw cash.
Zuniga and another women later used the card to withdraw around $1,200 from more than one ATM, according to the prosecution.
Later, Dobbs' hands were tied and the trash bag was still on his head when his neck was slashed 14 times, the Desert Sun reported.
Dobbs, an avid golfer, was a longtime member of the Beach Grove Golf Club. He ran a family-owned window cleaning and janitorial company, Excelsior Buildings Maintenance.
