Mark Andre Tomas Navarrete had grown resentful of his parents.
He had been scamming his friends and family with fake investments, according to Elk Grove Police Department detectives, promising them repayment and exorbitant interest rates.
When his parents began to pay back family members for his debts, he decided he wanted their money for himself.
A jury last month found Navarrete guilty of killing his parents for financial gain and convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder. And on Friday, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman sentenced 46-year-old Navarrete to life in prison.
His father, Augusto Tacsuan Navarrete, was 73, and his mother, Marjorie Jane Tomas Navarrete, was 70. At the time, he stood to inherit half of their estate, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office said, but did not elaborate on the couple’s wealth.
In June 2024, their son drove from his Elk Grove home to his parents’ neighborhood and parked a few blocks from their house, prosecutors said. He donned a mask and gloves and sped the rest of the way to his parents’ home on a scooter.
He used the side gate to reach his parents’ backyard door, skirting detection from a Ring camera at the front door, prosecutors said.
In their garage, prosecutors said, Navarrete struck both his mother and father on the head and then strangled them. He drove away in his parents’ car, parked it near where he had parked, and left in his own car.
Later that morning, after his parents were already dead, Navarrete texted them, asking if they wanted to come over for dinner, according to prosecutors.
His sister became worried when she could not reach her parents. Prosecutors said he visited them with his children and pretended to discover them deceased.
Detectives with Elk Grove police found the scooter he had used in his garage, and DNA analysis revealed his DNA under his mother’s fingernails, prosecutors said.
To solve the case, prosecutors said the Elk Grove Police Department used Flock cameras and other traffic surveillance footage that captured Navarrete’s movements.
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