I think it would be interesting for a criminal attorney VI here to comment on what can constitute premeditation. It is my understanding that it can be a VERY short period of planning...just not a "in the heat of the moment or passion" event. Given how long strangling takes (versus a gunshot, for example), you have many moments to back out as well. I also wonder how hard it is to prove premeditation when you have 3 killings, which very likely given strangling had to happen one after another at the very least - not simultaneously. Whatever happened, he had many, many minutes to stop before all three were dead, even assuming they happened one after another, which we do not know.