Suspect Charged in Double Slaying

A suspected Canoga Park manufacturer of illegal drugs has been charged with killing his girlfriend and her son in Bakersfield, then burying them on a ranch in San Luis Obispo County, a spokesman for the Kern County district attorney’s office said Thursday.

Robert Frederick Garceau, 38, was charged with two counts of “special circumstances” murder in papers filed Thursday at the West Kern County Courthouse in Bakersfield, said Dan Sparks, deputy district attorney. Because the case involves multiple murders, Sparks said he would seek a death penalty.

Sparks said Maureen Farrel Bautista, 38, and Telesforo Bautista, 14, both of North Hollywood, were stabbed to death in September in a Bakersfield apartment after a dispute over drugs. He said they were found buried on the San Luis Obispo County ranch earlier this month.

Garceau has also been named as a fugitive from the Los Angeles County justice system on unrelated charges.

Sparks said Garceau is in jail in Monterey County, accused of killing one of the owners of the ranch. The killing allegedly took place in Monterey County. A spokesman for the Monterey County district attorney’s office said Garceau has also been charged with possession of a machine gun, conspiracy to produce amphetamines and manufacture of amphetamines.

The Monterey County case is expected to go to trial in May, the spokesman said. Sparks said Garceau would be arraigned next week in the Bakersfield killings.

A spokesman from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Garceau has been a fugitive since September, when he was convicted in Los Angeles Superior Court of illegally owning a gun silencer. After Garceau failed to appear at a sentencing hearing, a no-bail warrant was issued for his arrest, the spokesman said. A second warrant was issued when Garceau failed to appear at a trial in Van Nuys Superior Court, where he is charged with illegal possession of explosives.