Newbury Park Man Convicted for Attemped Murders

A Superior Court jury convicted Kyle Rubin of Newbury Park on three counts of attempted murder in the 2007 stabbings of three people on Tuesday.

Rubin, 21, and his defense team claimed he was high on LSD and methamphetamines during the incidents and that the stabbings were not premeditated. The jury, however, found that attacks were “willful, deliberate and premeditated.”

Additionally, the group of 12 convicted him on one count of attempted first-degree burglary, three counts of first-degree residential burglary, and one count of inflicting great bodily harm to one of the three victims.

Prosecutors said Rubin entered a home in the early hours of Oct. 25, 2007, and used a kitchen knife from that residence to cut the throat of the sleeping girl before attacking the girl’s mother and attempting to slice her throat as well. Authorities say Rubin had earlier illegally entered another residence and stabbed a sleeping man before a woman in the room when the victim awakened and recognized him.

Todd Howeth, Rubin’s lawyer, said in closing arguments that Rubin “committed the crime of assault with a deadly weapon. Howeth, who is with the Ventura County Public Defender’s office, had urged jurors to consider Rubin’s mindset during the incidents to determine whether or not he intended to kill the three victims.

Prosecutor Tate McCallister, meanwhile, said in his closing arguments that Rubin told detectives following the alleged crimes that he “wanted to go out with a bang” and “wanted everyone to feel some of the pain,” as jurors saw in a videotaped interview.

Rubin will be sentenced April 26.