The rescue from a locked bedroom became a critical part of a case that ended with Miguel Diego Sandoval admitting four murders.
LANCASTER, Calif. — Inside a burning house where four adults had been shot, a 16-year-old victim called 911 from a locked bedroom and waited for help. Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies reached the North Tabler Avenue home and rescued the teenager. Nearly two years later, Miguel Diego Sandoval has admitted responsibility for the killings, the fire and other crimes committed during the attack.
The emergency call and rescue were among the few details that emerged immediately after the Nov. 16, 2024, violence in this Antelope Valley city. At first, authorities publicly described a house in flames, four shooting victims and a teenage survivor while homicide detectives tried to determine what had happened and why. Prosecutors now say Sandoval, who was 19 at the time, had waited outside until the occupants went to bed, entered the home and fatally shot Janvi Maquindang, Christine Aca-ac, Edwin Garcia and Matthew Montebello. He then set the residence on fire and fled, the District Attorney’s Office said.
The 911 call brought law enforcement and firefighters to the 44500 block of North Tabler Avenue shortly before 1:30 a.m. Deputies arrived as the one-story house burned. Three of the adults were pronounced dead at the scene, according to initial reports, while another was taken to a hospital in critical condition and later died. The teenager escaped physical injury after deputies rescued the survivor from the bedroom. Officials initially withheld many details, saying investigators believed the killings were isolated and were still working to determine the motive and the cause of the fire.
That uncertainty has since been replaced by guilty pleas and a prosecution account of planning. On Aug. 13, 2026, Sandoval pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and admitted special circumstances of multiple murders and murder by lying in wait. He also admitted attempted murder, first-degree residential burglary, arson of an inhabited structure or property, three felony animal-cruelty counts and two felony child-abuse counts under circumstances likely to cause great bodily injury or death. Prosecutors said the admissions will result in life in prison without the possibility of parole. His formal sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 17.
The lying-in-wait allegation is central to prosecutors’ description of the attack because the District Attorney’s Office says Sandoval stayed outside the residence until those inside had gone to sleep. Prosecutors say he then entered and shot the four adults. The office attributed the violence to revenge after the end of Sandoval’s relationship with a brother of Aca-ac and Maquindang. That explanation was not released during the initial investigation. In the days following the killings, even relatives who recognized Sandoval’s name said publicly that investigators had not yet told them what had motivated the attack.
The fire added another layer of danger for anyone still alive inside. Prosecutors said Sandoval started it after the shootings. Three dogs in the home died, and Sandoval later pleaded guilty to three corresponding felony animal-cruelty charges. The burning structure also complicated the work of first responders, who were confronting both a fire and victims suffering from gunshot wounds. Authorities have not released an extensive tactical account of the rescue, and the surviving teenager’s identity has remained outside the central public record, limiting unnecessary exposure of a minor who lived through the attack.
When the house was no longer an active emergency scene, investigators began the work that eventually led to Sandoval. He was arrested several days after the killings. Early coverage identified him as a 19-year-old Lancaster resident and said homicide investigators planned to present the case to county prosecutors. On Nov. 26, 2024, the District Attorney’s Office announced four murder charges, along with burglary and arson. Prosecutors also alleged at the time that the killings involved multiple murders and lying in wait and that a handgun had been used. Sandoval was held without bail as the case proceeded.
The surviving teenager’s call also underscored how many people were affected beyond the four adults who died. Later charges included attempted murder and child abuse, reflecting danger to other people in the home. Prosecutors’ 2026 public announcement did not spell out every factual allegation underlying those counts, so the precise conduct associated with each surviving victim has not been fully described in the public summary. The guilty pleas, however, mean Sandoval has admitted those crimes as well as the killings, burglary, arson and animal cruelty.
Families described the dead as two couples who had built a shared household. Garcia was engaged to Aca-ac. Maquindang was in a relationship with Montebello. Garcia’s relatives said after the killings that he was loving, considerate and able to make other people feel included. Montebello’s family said he was thoughtful, talented and interested in music and other creative work. His mother recalled seeing him for dinner the night before the attack, a meeting that became their final time together. Neighbors said the four young adults were quiet, polite residents who largely kept to themselves.
The family structure made the loss especially far-reaching. Relatives said Aca-ac served as legal guardian for younger siblings. After her death and Maquindang’s, the surviving siblings faced both grief and the loss of the adults around whom their home life had been organized. Families launched fundraising pages for funeral and related expenses, while relatives of Garcia and Montebello spoke publicly about the lives of the people killed rather than focusing only on the circumstances of their deaths.
Official descriptions of the victims’ ages have varied over the course of the case. The District Attorney’s Office’s August 2026 plea announcement listed Maquindang as 21, Aca-ac as 25, Garcia as 24 and Montebello as 21, while some earlier government and news reports gave different ages for several of them. The identities have remained consistent. The plea announcement also gives the prosecution’s most recent public account of the sequence: Sandoval waited, entered after the household had gone to bed, killed the four adults, set the home on fire and left.
The legal proceedings now move toward punishment rather than a trial over guilt. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said the plea ensures a lifetime prison sentence and described the attack as calculated. Court reporting said Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo is expected to impose four consecutive life terms without parole. The District Attorney’s Office said Sandoval will be sentenced Nov. 17 at the Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles. The case is being prosecuted by the office’s Major Crimes Division and was investigated by the Sheriff’s Department.
The criminal case can now account for the offenses through Sandoval’s admissions, but the first known act of survival in the public record remains the teenager’s call from inside the burning home. That call brought deputies to a locked bedroom while fire and violence had already taken four lives elsewhere in the residence. With sentencing still ahead, it stands as a distinct part of the case: one person inside was able to reach emergency dispatchers, remain sheltered and get out alive.
Author note: Last updated September 28, 2026.