LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities have charged two men in the beating death of a man whose remains were discovered near a shallow grave in the Angeles National Forest.
Erik Thomas Pearson and Donald Thurman were charged Wednesday with capital murder with the special circumstances of robbery and lying in wait. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office will decide whether to seek the death penalty.
A hiker stumbled on a shallow grave in the Angeles National Forest near the foothill community of Sunland in January. Sheriff's deputies found the remains of 25-year-old Nicholas Carter several hundred yards from the shallow grave 10 days later.
Prosecutors say Pearson and Thurman beat Carter, dumped his body and stole his credit cards.
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