Friday, March 7, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
A frail 64-year-old man who killed his two sons-in-law hung his head in court as he pleaded guilty in a deal that should keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.
But Alberto Tayag's plea bargain Thursday offered few answers to the execution of the pair as they sat in front of him in a van stopped in a grocery store parking lot.
"I am guilty," Tayag said through an interpreter in District Judge Michael Douglas' courtroom. "I shot both of them."
The only explanation he offered in court for the murders was that "I had a fight with my son-in-law, James (Hutcheson)."
Tayag had told police after his arrest, however, that the men had abused his daughters and grandchildren.
Hutcheson, 31, was shot several times in the back with a .357-caliber pistol and Nestor de la Llana, 37, was shot once through the neck on Jan. 3.
Family and friends of the defendant and victims sat quietly side by side in the back of the courtroom as Tayag pleaded guilty to the two counts of first-degree murder. They already knew that the lightest penalty he could receive would be a life sentence with the possibility of parole only after 20 years had been served.
Douglas could double that at the May 1 sentencing hearing if he chooses.
Deputy District Attorney Bill Koot said Hutcheson was behind the wheel of the van when the shots were fired into his back, apparently without warning.
"He then turned the gun on Nestor and shot him once," Koot said. "Neither man was armed."
Deputy Public Defender Will Ewing said Tayag agreed to plead guilty to the shootings in a grocery store parking lot at Maryland Parkway and Tropicana Avenue because "he didn't want to put his family through any more grief."
Tayag was arrested the day after the bodies were found inside the van at the market.
Witnesses told police that after the blue Dodge van pulled in and parked, they heard gunshots from inside and saw a man jump out of the back door and run away.
Tayag told police he could no longer put up with the abuse he said the men were inflicting.
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