A former Army mechanic got life without the possibility of parole plus 75 years in state prison as the first sentence was handed down today in the 2016 triple murder that included as victims a Fullerton couple who were part of the furry community.
Joshua Charles Acosta, 23, of Fort Irwin, had been found guilty by an Orange County Superior Court jury Nov. 8 on three counts of felony murder, while sentencing enhancement allegations of special circumstances (for multiple murders) and personal discharge of a firearm causing death were found true.
Frank Sato Felix, 27, of Sun Valley, allegedly helped Acosta acquire a shotgun, drove the soldier to the Fullerton home of 39-year-old Jennifer Goodwill-Yost and her 34-year-old husband Christopher Yost and waited in his truck as the horror show unfolded inside.
Early the morning of Sept. 24, 2016, Acosta entered the residence where the Yosts were asleep, as were their minor children and the couple’s 28-year-old friend, Arthur William Boucher, who had spent the night.
Acosta first walked into the living room, where he shot Boucher in the head as the victim slept on the couch.
Next, Acosta went into the master bedroom, where he shot Goodwill-Yost in the face. That awoke her husband, who was shot in the head as he was fleeing for his life.
Felix, who has a pre-trial hearing scheduled for Feb. 1, allegedly drove to his home with Acosta, and once there they tried to destroy evidence, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office.
After a Fullerton Police Department investigation, Felix was arrested at his Sun Valley home while Acosta was picked up at his Fort Irwin barracks.
Our original report on the bloodbath, “Furries, Plushies and Voodoo Dolls Surround Family Murder Tragedy,” pointed out that Katlynn Goodwill Yost, the daughter of the slain woman, was originally under suspicion.
The then-17-year-old had gone missing briefly after the shooting and, once she was found, she was booked into juvenile hall on suspicion of murder and conspiracy.
A member of the furry community herself, the teen had been Facebook friends with Acosta, with both having posted about being bullied and the soldier having “liked” messages mentioning her furry fox persona, “daydreamerfox.”
The girl was also known to have problems with her mother, who disapproved of the teen getting into relationships with older men, including Acosta. Goodwill-Yost sold crystals, plushies and voodoo dolls through her business Vixie’s Creations.
Her daughter claimed to police that her stepfather had molested her and that she planned to run away with Acosta. In court testimony, she maintained she did not know beforehand that violence would be used to get her away from her family.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.