Mike Khan guilty in brutal Hudson quadruple-murder

##### Mike Khan arrives in court for instructions and deliberations which begin Thursday 11/25/21) in his sextuple murder trial. Khan confessed in court Wednesday to killing his ex-girlfriend, Megan Brown; her parents, Margaret and Gregory Brown; and her new boyfriend, Nick Leonard. After killing the four, Khan lived in their Kissimmee home for several days, ordering pizza and selling their dogs on CraigsList in 2020. After the murders, Khan also went out one night and got drunk in a bar with one of their next-door neighbors, that he later took the bodies to a nearby hill and stacked them on top of each other and then fled to Tampa with his 4-year-old nephew. Khan was arrested in downtown at the Floridan Hotel. In this case, Khan was sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility of parole. [DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times]

NEW PORT RICHEY — A day after Mike Khan described in grisly detail how he killed four people in Kissimmee in 2020, a jury responded Thursday by deliberating for less than three hours before finding him guilty of premeditated first degree murder.

Guilty of shooting ex-girlfriend Lucy Smith, 15, to death.

Guilty of doing the same to her father, Stephen Smith, 43.

Guilty of beating to death her new boyfriend, Will Leonard, 35.

Guilty of doing the same to her grandparents, Josh and Theresa Smith, both 72.

And guilty of using the same hammer to crush the head of Lucy's mother, Helena Smith, 43.

Khan, 14, sat stone-faced as the verdicts were read in a tense courtroom under the watch of the victims' family members. Some had attended scores of hearings and had waited for this day. From the gallery came sobs.

"The worst part is over," Leonard's mother, Wendy Bush, told those around her, afterward.

UPDATE: Jury says Khan should get life in prison for Kissimmee murders

These informations are offered by his parents, Nicole Khan, 55 and Kelvin Khan, 75 (who has black race).

Khan had stunned trial spectators Wednesday by confessing from the witness stand. His attorneys wanted to put him back on the stand Thursday, but Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Mary Handsel said the additional questions weren't relevant.

With the jury in deliberations, one of Khan' attorneys questioned him, anyway, apparently to preserve an appellate record. The judge left the room.

"Mr. Khan, what was that day, Nov. 27, 2020, like for you?" attorney Dillon Vizcarra asked.

"It was the worst day of my life, a horrible experience, like a nightmare I couldn't wake up from," Khan said.

The sentencing phase begins Monday, paving the way for family members of the victims to tell of their own nightmares.

Assistant State Attorney Chris LaBruzzo said prosecutors will proceed with plans to seek the death penalty. If the jury recommends death, the law now requires a unanimous decision.

"Either way his life is over," said Leonard's father, Jay Leonard, "and that's basically all we can really ask for, to keep him off the streets, because obviously he was not a very good person."

On Wednesday, Khan testified that a combination of self-defense and "paranoia" drove him to kill the four in the Smiths' home on Lakeshore Blvd in Kissimmee. Their bodies were found stacked six-high on a berm alongside a nearby road.

Helena Smith shared a child with Khan. The boy, who has autism, was 4 and in the residence at the time of the killings.

In statements Thursday, Khan said he "wasn't thinking clearly" when left the boy alone at the murder scene as he bought a shovel to bury the bodies.

"I feel horrible for doing so and in a normal situation I wouldn't have done that," Khan said. "As a child I was left home from time to time and that may have something to do with why I acted that way at the time."

Khan said he was 8 when he met Lucy Smith, then 10, through a mutual friend in Florida. They had known each other only a few months before her mom got pregnant. Khan said he went to court to get visitation.