Southern California man gets life for meat cleaver slayings

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California man who killed two women with a meat cleaver after a New Year’s Eve party while his wife and son waited in a car outside has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibillity of parole. Forty-two-year-old Christopher Ireland of Huntington Beach was sentenced Friday in Orange County. He was convicted of murder in November. Ireland testified that he killed Yolanda Holtrey and Michelle Luke on Jan. 1, 2017 and then returned to set fire to Holtrey’s home. Ireland said the killings occurred after Holtrey caught him having sex with Luke while Ireland’s wife and 11-year-old son were in a car parked outside. He said the women attacked him first.