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Glendale man sentenced in 2015 murder of grandparents

Police investigate in June 2015 the home in the 600 block of Alexander Street in Glendale, where the bodies of William and Verna Scheiern were found.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Nathaniel Wayne Scheiern will spend 41 years to life in prison for killing his grandparents in their Glendale home.

The sentence came this week after the 36-year-old pleaded no contest to first- and second-degree murder in late April.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said Scheiern killed his grandparents on or around June 24 or June 25, 2015, in the 600 block of Alexander Street. The couple had lived at the home for over 20 years, and Scheiern had recently moved in.

Scheiern attacked and killed his 82-year-old grandmother, Verna Scheiern, with an ax, according to court testimony. William Scheiern, his 77-year-old grandfather, tried to intervene and was then killed with a hammer.

The double-murder was discovered June 28 after a family member called the Glendale Police Department to conduct a well-being check on the couple, according to testimony given in 2016.

An officer found the home’s front door ajar and a foul odor emanating from inside. The bodies were found covered with a blanket on a bed in a significant state of decomposition, according to the testimony.

Officers found a bloodied hammer a few feet from the bodies and recovered an ax caked in dried blood embedded in a wall.

Police soon found Nathaniel Scheiern recovering at a Valencia hospital, where he was being treated for injuries sustained in a car crash that occurred sometime after the killings.

He was taken into custody and confessed.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_Truc

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