2016-08-10t025449z_524899155_tm3ec8917cx01_rtrmadp_3_california-grimsleeper.jpgLos Angeles County Superior Court Kathleen Kennedy imposed the death sentence recommended in June for Lonnie David Franklin Jr. (63) by a jury. Before Franklin was arrested the killer was dubbed the "Grim Sleeper" because he seemed to have taken a 13-year break between the two spates of murders. A month earlier, it had convicted him on 10 counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. During the trial, his attorneys sought to raise doubts about DNA evidence and suggested another "mystery man" was behind the killings. Franklin was convicted of shooting seven women to death from August 1985 to September 1988, then strangling a 15-year-old girl, and strangling or shooting two other women in a second round of killings between March 2002 and January 2007.

Source: Otago Daily Times August 10, 2016 18:45 UTC