COUPLE FOUND DEAD IN GARAGE: MAN, 46, WAS FACING POSSIBLE LIFE TERM

A Sacramento couple were found dead in an apparent double suicide
Wednesday, hours after the man was to have appeared in court to face a
possible life sentence under the "three strikes and you're out" law.

The two were found in the garage of a house on Gibson Street, just off
Del Paso Boulevard, Wednesday afternoon by friends who grew concerned
when the 46-year-old man failed to appear in court.

He and his 45-year-old long-time girlfriend were in sleeping bags in
the back of a van in the locked garage, said Sacramento Sheriff's Sgt.
Tom Sweeney. Their names were being withheld until relatives could be
notified.

He said there appeared to be no suicide note, but the situation was
consistent with death by carbon monoxide poisoning. "The ignition of
the van was on, but the engine wasn't running -- as if it had run out
of gas."

The man originally faced charges of possession of less than an ounce
of marijuana and .07 gram of methamphetamine, plus a weapons
violation, said his lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Gayathri Murthy.
"They'd offered him 120 days in jail for a guilty plea," Murthy said,
"but then the district attorney informed me they'd found these priors
and were going to have to file under the 'three strikes' law."

Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Albert Locher said the law
requires that the three-strikes charge be filed whenever prior
convictions are discovered, although they can be dismissed later if
the situation warrants.

In the case at hand, he said, the man turned out to have had four
convictions for armed robbery in Michigan in 1976.

His record since then had been clean until the recent arrest, Murthy
said.

Lewis Thorne, who owns the property and the van where the apparent
suicides occurred, said the man was a talented artist in Indian crafts.

"He was a helluva nice guy and real good friend. They were both
beautiful people," Thorne said.