Child killer commits suicide in prison cell

A 33-year-old drifter and drug addict who admitted killing a 9-year-old boy in Oceanside in 1998 by slashing his throat has committed suicide at San Quentin State Prison, officials said Thursday.

Brandon Wilson was found hanged in his cell on Death Row. He admitted killing Matthew Louis Cecchi in a bathroom at the beach at Oceanside.

In sentencing Wilson to death, San Diego County Superior Court Judge John Einhorn called the crime "vicious and heinous" and said to Wilson, "you are beyond the pale of salvation."

Wilson said during the trial that he stalked the child and killed him because God told him to do so. He had been taking LSD and staring at the sun in the days before the killing.

Matthew was visiting Oceanside with his family from Northern California. At the sentencing, the boy's father told Wilson, "I hope and pray you rot in hell for eternity."

An emotionless Wilson told the judge that he wanted to die. "He has no remorse," his attorney said. "He believes what he did was right."

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--Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: Brandon Wilson and Matthew Cecchi. Credit: Associated Press