4 more death sentences for 'most prolific' LA killer
Already on death row in California for killing 10 women in an area of Los Angeles known for street crime, Chester D. Turner, 47, was sentenced Friday to the ultimate penalty in another four slayings during the 1980s and 1990s.
Described by authorities as the city’s “most prolific” serial killer, the onetime pizza deliveryman has been portrayed as a violent sexual predator who choked most of his victims to death with his bare hands and attended post-funeral dinners for the families and friends of some victims in order to enjoy their suffering.
The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times (sub. req.) have stories about his latest sentencing. Although offered a plea deal prior to trial that would have given him life without parole, Turner opted to go to trial and was convicted in June, as KTLA reported at the time,
Turner, was reportedly linked by DNA to at least most of the victims, but his lawyer, Kieran Patrick Brown, said Turner “denies to this day that he killed anybody.”
An innocent man with the intellectual capacity of an 8-year-old was originally convicted in three of the murders and served 11 years before he was exonerated and awarded $720,000 in compensation.
