Man given two life sentences for murdering his parents in Elk Grove

A man has been given two consecutive life without parole sentences after a jury convicted him in October of murdering both of his parents in Elk Grove, prosecutors said Friday.

Officials said that on June 28, 2024, Mark Andre Navarrete called for emergency help from a home on Crosscourt Way, telling dispatchers that he had entered the home and found his parents dead after multiple unsuccessful attempts to contact them. 

He also told responding officers that one of their vehicles vehicles was missing. 

However, police said, video evidence showed Navarrete parking a car a few blocks away from the crime scene, and then leaving in his parent's vehicle. 

Prosecutors alleged that Navarrete had put on a mask and gloves and ridden a kick scooter to his parent's residence, using a side gate to avoid being spotted by their home surveillance camera.

 He then struck his parents with an object before strangling them to death, then fleeing the scene in their vehicle and parking it where he had parked his own vehicle prior to the murders.

Navarrete would send a text message to his parents after the murders, inviting them to dinner, according to officials. 

Prosecutors said that Navarrete resented his parents for paying back debts their son owed to his friends and family, which he had incurred by scamming them with fake investment schemes, and that he stood to inherit half of their estate when they passed away.