63, was also found guilty in the attempted murder of Enietra Washington, who survived being shot in the chest and pushed out of a moving vehicle in November 1988.
Advertisement
“He would have been happy” with Monday’s verdict, said Diana Ware, Bill Ware’s 67-year-old widow, who spoke tearfully of the stepdaughter she largely raised.
He was convicted on May 5 of shooting seven women to death between August 1985 and 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.
While Franklin was not charged with those additional slayings, prosecutors in the penalty phase were permitted to present testimony about five such cases, including two in which no bodies were ever found.
A former police garage attendant and garbage collector, Franklin Jr.is known as one of California’s worst serial killers.
Today the jury recommended that Franklin receive the death penalty.
Before losing consciousness, Washington said Franklin sexually assaulted her.
Lonnie Franklin Jr will be put to death for 10 murders. One of the defense lawyers for Franklin asked jurors to sentence him to life in prison without parole arguing that it will speed the healing process for the families of the victims.
Prosecutors said Franklin stalked vulnerable young black women before shooting or strangling them.
Parents of other victims are now in their 60s and 70s and said they were thankful to be able to get justice for their daughters.
But the jury called for the death penalty on all 10 murder counts and the judge set formal sentencing for August 10 when he will carry out the jury’s wishes and condemn Franklin to death. The killings from 1985 to 2007 were dubbed the work of the Grim Sleeper because of an apparent 14-year gap after one woman survived a gunshot to the chest in 1988.
A detective later posed as a busboy at a pizza parlor and obtained Franklin’s DNA from collected utensils and crusts after attending a birthday party.
Most wore disheveled clothing suggesting they had been re-dressed and moved, Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman said in her closing argument. She also remembered seeing the flash form a camera. This trial has been focused on 11 victims, but police suspect there were more.
Advertisement
Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk.
