Death penalties sought in Tahoe girl’s murder

Brendan Riley

Thursday, March 30, 2000 | 2:50 a.m.

STATELINE, Nev. - Prosecutors confirmed Thursday that they might seek dual death penalties in the case of a father and son charged in the throat-slashing death of a 9-year-old Tahoe girl.

As Thomas Soria Sr., 39, was arraigned on murder, kidnapping and sexual assault charges in the death of Krystal Steadman, lawyers in the Douglas County district attorney's office filed a notice that they might try to have him executed.

District Attorney Scott Doyle already had filed a similar notice in the case of Soria's son, Thomas Soria Jr., 19.

The son was suspected immediately in the murder because witnesses saw the girl on the running board of his vehicle, outside an apartment where she was playing before she disappeared.

The young girl's nude body was found dumped down a U.S. 50 slope, a day after her March 19 disappearance.

The father was charged Wednesday after investigators said they found trace evidence linking him to the murder.

Soria Sr. also faces separate sexual assault charges stemming from an October incident involving a 15-year-old girl, and Sheriff Ron Pierini said officers "are investigating the possibility that other sexual assaults may have occurred."

Soria Jr. is accused of aiding and abetting his father's alleged sexual assault of the 15-year-old. Both men are being held without bail.

Pierini said investigators think the son brought her into the Sorias' apartment and convinced her that Soria Sr. "would die if she refused to have sex with him."

An arrest report states the son introduced his father to the girl as his "uncle Tom," and told her the "uncle" had brain tumors that might explode if he got upset.

Soria Jr. was hired seven months ago to work part-time at a satellite branch of the Lake Tahoe Boys and Girls Club. He passed a background check for the $6.50-an-hour job - but the check didn't reveal an April 1999 arrest for burglary, possession of stolen property and trying to pass a bad check.

Soria Sr., an unemployed computer technician who had worked as a lottery security officer in the Sacramento area, had a prior arrest in 1998 for making obscene, threatening phone calls to two female coworkers. That included a rape threat in one case, court records state. He spent 75 days in jail and was placed on three years' probation.

The Sorias moved to Tahoe from North Highlands, a Sacramento, Calif., suburb, in January 1999.