'You Shot Him Like an Animal'—Carioscia's Mom to Lloyd at Sentencing

The mother of El Capitan High School teenager Christopher Carioscia read a virulent statement at the sentencing of her son's convicted killer, Stanley Virgil Lloyd Jr., in court Friday.

“I will never forgive you or your people,” Monika Pyskata said. “You shot him in the back, like an animal. Animals ate his heart, his ears, his liver, his kidneys.”

The body of the 17-year-old from Santee was found on Barona Indian Reservation in December 2010, nearly six weeks after he had gone missing.

Lloyd confessed to voluntary manslaughter, after a on a first-degree murder charge. He was 19 when he was arrested at his home in Lakeside. The two young men had gone to school together for 10 years, according to Pyskata.

During the trial, the court heard how Pyskata and Carioscia's father, Christopher Carioscia Sr., had been running an East County prescription drug ring, using their son and other young people to fill prescriptions and sell drugs. Their son had a bag of Xanax on him the night he disappeared, prosecutor David Williams III said. But both parents have told reporters they find it hard to believe their son's longtime acquaintance would have killed him over a bag of Xanax.

Defense attorney Roland Haddad commented in court that Lloyd once said something about Carioscia bringing all the "heat" up to the reservation, which meant law enforcement, the attorney clarified. But there was no further clarification of that issue.

A witness in the trial said he last saw Carioscia on the Barona Casino gambling floor at about midnight in October 2010. He said the teen had talked about needing to connect that night with “Scooter,” Lloyd's nickname.

Carioscia's burned out car was found on the reservation the next morning. His bullet-ridden body was later found lying near a streambed in a remote area of the tribal grounds, down an unpaved road.

“You left him out there for five weeks,” Pyskata said. “I never even got to kiss him goodbye, he was so badly decomposed.”

She called Lloyd a coward.

Lloyd and Pyskata never looked at each other as she read her statement.

“I hope you burn in hell,” she said. “All your family and friends were laughing in the courthouse during the trial. Your mother ... I hope one day she feels the same pain I am feeling.”

She wore a black T-shirt that read, “Rest in Peace, Christopher.”

About her son, Pyskata told Lloyd, “Him and I, we will always be around. You will hear about us.”

Before Friday's sentencing, Pyskata told reporters she didn't understand why Lloyd had killed her son. But she said she felt some peace now that the case is over.

“He admitted it,” she said. “And he'll serve a long time in prison.”

Lloyd was committed to 21 years in state prison at the end of the sentencing. He received 11 years for the primary charge and 10 years for the special allegation of using a firearm.

He came into the courtroom smiling broadly at his family and friends. As he left, he gave what appeared to be a peace sign with two fingers and a smile back toward them. His mother raised her arms and joined her hands above her head. Others gave the two-fingered sign, one blew him a kiss.

Pyskata told reporters outside the court that her son got into drugs after a friend's suicide. indicated his body was laced with methamphetamine and a metabolite of heroin when he died.

“He made a mistake,” Pyskata said of her son's drug use. But she added that he was a good person who always thought of others before himself.

“He told me, 'If anything ever happens to me, be a good mom to my little sister,” she said. Pyskata's daughter is now 10 years old.

The Lloyd case involved an intense trial in which the prosecutor told the jury that “on his 18th birthday ... Carioscia lay on a cold, steel autopsy table.” He said the case was a “giant puzzle” and that more pieces might have been available if Barona Casino had provided their surveillance video as requested and if tribal security had cooperated more. At least once, extra bailiffs were called to the court hallway due to heated verbal exchanges between the family and friends of both sides. Young women were brought as prosecution witnesses to the stand from the hall behind the judge, so they didn't have to pass through the gauntlet of public in the outer hallway.

Due to the legal complexities involved and the high public interest, the case spurred on Indian Law.

Outside Judge John M. Thompson's courtroom on Friday, prosecutor Williams told Patch that the sentence of 21 years was “a good resolution” for the case.  Lloyd admitted responsibility for Carioscia's death in a plea bargain for a reduced charge. He was ordered to pay a total of $10,000—$5,000 of which will go to Pyskata and $5,000 to the State Victims' Compensation Fund.

His family and defense attorney Haddad, of La Mesa, declined to talk to Patch during the case.

No cameras are allowed in Judge Thompson's courtroom.