New charges filed in Tahoe girl’s murder

Brendan Riley

Thursday, March 30, 2000 | 9:04 a.m.

STATELINE, Nev. - A father and son may both face prosecution efforts to have them executed, as a result of new charges filed in the throat-slashing death of a 9-year-old Tahoe girl.

Douglas County Sheriff Ron Pierini and District Attorney Scott Doyle announced that Thomas Soria Sr., 39, was charged Wednesday with murder, kidnapping and sexual assault in the death of Krystal Steadman.

The same charges were filed earlier against Soria's son, Thomas Soria Jr., 19, after the girl's nude body was found dumped down a U.S. 50 slope, a day after her March 19 disappearance from a parking lot where she was playing.

In the son's case, Doyle already has said seeking the death penalty is an option.

Asked about a similar prosecution strategy in the father's case, Pierini said, "It's going to be on the agenda, I can tell you that."

The sheriff added that trace evidence from post-autopsy tests, completed earlier this week, resulted in the new charges against Soria Sr. He didn't elaborate.

The Sorias, in leg shackles, both appeared in Justice Court on Wednesday, and the father faces another hearing Thursday on his new charges. Both are being held without bail.

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

In addition to the charges against Soria Jr. in the Steadman murder, he's accused of aiding and abetting his father's alleged sexual assault of the 15-year-old.

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 suspected immediately in the Steadman murder because witnesses saw the girl on the running board of his vehicle, outside an apartment where her mother was visiting a friend.

Family members said the mother had told the girl earlier that she could play outside for only a few more minutes. When her daughter didn't return, the mother looked for her - even going to Soria's apartment.

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.