SANTA ANA, Calif. – A 33-year-old Sun Valley man has been convicted of three counts of special circumstances murder for helping carry out a plot to kill the mother and stepfather of a 17-year-old girl he became obsessed with after meeting her through the “furry” subculture. A friend of the family who was sleeping on the couch was also shot to death, according to the OCDA.
Frank Sato Felix, 33, of Sun Valley was convicted Tuesday of three felony counts of first-degree murder and three felony enhancements of multiple murders. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is scheduled to be sentenced on January 17, 2025, at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana in Department C30.
The 17-year-old girl was introduced by her mother to the “furry” subculture, which involves people dressing up in animal costumes, where she met Felix, then 25, and 21-year-old Joshua Charles Acosta, an Army mechanic stationed at Ft. Irwin in Barstow.
Felix became romantically involved with the teenage girl, but the girl’s mother, 39-year-old Jennifer Goodwill-Yost, and her stepfather, 35-year-old Christopher Yost, disapproved of the relationship.
Felix provided the ammunition and shotgun used to kill the victims. On September 24, 2016, Acosta and Felix drove to the Yosts’ Fullerton home to execute their plan to help the 17-year-old to escape the home until she turned 18.
After the parents and their houseguest, family friend Arthur “Billy” Boucher, went to sleep, the 17-year-old girl went into the truck with Felix.
Acosta then shot 28-year-old Boucher in the head as he was asleep on the living room couch. Acosta then went into the master bedroom and shot the 17-year-old’s mother in the face. The girl’s stepfather attempted to escape but was shot in the head as he tried to get out to the outside patio area.
Acosta fled the home, leaving the Yosts’ six-year-old and nine-year-old daughters alone in the home with the bodies of their parents and their friend, while he escaped with Katlynn and Felix to Felix’s home in Sun Valley where they burned their clothes and attempted to destroy their cell phones.
The Yosts’ six-year-old and nine-year-old daughters woke up to find their parents dead along with their friend and called 911.
Fullerton Police Department detectives arrested Felix at his Sun Valley home. Acosta was arrested at his barracks at Fort Irwin.
“Two little girls, six and nine, went to sleep not knowing the last time they would see their parents would be when they woke up to find them shot to death,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “The trauma inflicted on those little girls compounded by the loss both of their parents in such a violent way is beyond heartbreaking. Violence is never the answer, and a sick and twisted plan turned into life behind bars for two young men.”
Senior Deputy District Attorney Seton Hunt of the Homicide Unit is prosecuting this case.
Acosta was convicted of special circumstances triple murder on November 8, 2018.
