DA seeks death penalty against three men in farmhouse killings

<p>A district attorney is seeking the death penalty against three men for their roles in a farmhouse shooting last year in Forsyth County that left four people dead.</p><p>District Attorney Penny Penn made the announcement Friday during the first proceeding appearance for Jason McGhee, Marcin Sosniak and Frank Ortegon Jr. in Superior Court Judge David Dickinson's courtroom.</p><p>None of the defendants entered formal pleas Friday. McGhee and Sosniak will be arraigned on Jan. 10 and Ortegon will be arraigned on Jan. 11 before Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Bagley, who will be presiding over his case.</p><p>The three defendants will be tried separately, as required in death penalty cases. Trials in the cases aren't expected until 2009.</p><p>Last month, the three defendants were indicted on 20 felony charges ranging from malice murder to aggravated battery in the March 2006 attack that also left three others injured.</p><p>Authorities allege the three men stormed a farmhouse that was a popular teenager hangout, stabbing and shooting eight people inside. Authorities previously said one suspect may have plotted the rampage in retaliation for an incident months earlier when one of the occupants of the house allegedly stole some marijuana from him.</p><p>The indictment accused Sosniak, 22, McGhee, 24, and Ortegon, 27, each of four counts of malice murder and four counts of felony murder in the deaths of Kyle Elliott Jones, 17, Mariel Elisabeth Hannah, 18, William Christopher Osment, 15, and Lynn Bartlett, 56.</p><p>The three men also were charged with eight counts of aggravated assault, three counts of aggravated battery and one count of burglary.</p><p>The farmhouse burned to the ground in June. No one had lived there since the killings happened.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x2dea1f4)</p>