Killer of 12-Year-Old Girl Sentenced to Life, Says He Deserves to Die

Originally published by The Associated Press, February 2, 2002

SACRAMENTO — A 20-year-old El Dorado Hills man who kidnapped a 12-year-old suburban Sacramento girl, then raped and strangled her, received a life sentence in state prison, but said he deserves to die.

"I don't believe justice will be served until the minute I am not breathing," said Justin Michael Weinberger, who admitted to abducting, then killing Courtney Sconce of Rancho Cordova along a Sutter County riverbank in November 2000. "My name will be synonymous with evil. I deserve to die."

A construction company clerk and son of a deputy state attorney general, Weinberger received his sentence during a tear-filled court hearing in which even the judge lost composure.

"Little dreams of a warm bath, the smell of her home, the warmth of her sister and mother were taken," said Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette, his voice cracking. "Little dreams of 'N Sync and scrunchies were shattered by this stranger."

Sconce's parents read emotional statements about their heartbreak, feelings of guilt for not protecting their daughter and the myth of "closure."

"I even tried to find God," said Sconce's father, Mark Sconce. "I've lost faith in that because I still haven't found the comfort people talk about."

According to probation reports, Weinberger said he abducted the girl to get even with society after investigators entered his home and found child pornography on his computer. Weinberger will begin his state prison sentence after serving 10 years in federal prison for trafficking child pornography online.