LANCASTER COUNTY — A Lancaster man was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder in the 2013 killing of 36-year-old Parrish Thaxton, according to the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office.
According to trial testimony, Mario Casanova-Lanzo, 42, broke into the home of his estranged wife on February 20, 2013 and shot Thaxton twice with a shotgun at close range, the DA’s Office says. Thaxton was the boyfriend of the estranged wife.
“He assassinated Parrish Thaxton,” Assistant District Attorney Mark Fetterman said in closing argument. “He [Casanova-Lanzo] had a plan.”
During the four-day trial, Fetterman showed the jurors letters Casanova-Lanzo wrote which contained admissions to killing Thaxton, the DA’s Office says.
In one letter, Casanova-Lanzo wrote that he shot Thaxton once, then “finished him off” with a second shot, according to the DA’s Office.
Casanova-Lanzo is scheduled to be sentenced on September 26. He faces a mandatory term of life imprisonment.
