GUILTY PLEA PREVENTS 3RD TRIAL IN SLAYINGS.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Daily News Staff Writer

After one trial ended in a deadlocked jury and his conviction in a second trial was overturned on appeal, an Acton man pleaded guilty Monday to voluntary manslaughter for killing a father and son in what prosecutors allege was retaliation for the death of his dog.

Just before the beginning of his third trial, William Strong accepted the plea bargain calling for him to serve a sentence of more than 19 years in prison.

``He avoids having a life (sentence) and he knows exactly when he would be eligible for parole,'' said prosecutor Kelly Cromer. ``This disposition means we won't have another trial. It's never a certainty as to what the jury would do.''

Strong, 41, was charged with killing neighbor Kenneth Laux Sr., 59, of Acton, and Kenneth Laux Jr., 34, of Pearblossom, in February 1994 outside the trailer in which Strong lived as a caretaker.

Sentencing is scheduled for May 5 in a Van Nuys courtroom, where a restitution hearing also will be held. Strong is disputing having to pay $6,000 in burial costs for the victims, saying his former landlord already has paid the expenses in a civil lawsuit settlement.

In representing himself Monday, Strong appeared self-assured, but complained several times that he did not understand the proceeding and got the judge to explain things to him, Cromer said.

In Strong's first trial, a Lancaster jury found him not guilty of first-degree murder but deadlocked on whether he committed second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter.

Strong was convicted in November 1995 of second-degree murder of the elder Laux and voluntary manslaughter of the son. But two years later the state Court of Appeal sent the case back to Van Nuys Superior Court, where Judge Michael Farrell vacated Strong's conviction, finding that the defendant had been misinformed about the potential maximum sentence when he rejected a plea bargain and went on trial.

Prosecutors said Strong frequently fired guns into a canyon behind his trailer, next to a two-story home on Hubbard Road. They said he was extremely angry at the death of his dog a month before the Laux slayings and frequently questioned neighbors about whether the father and son had shot the pet.

Prosecutors said the Lauxes were upset that Strong fired guns near their home. Strong said the father and son drove up toward his house after he fired a pistol out his bedroom window.

Strong claimed he shot the Lauxes in self-defense.