Zion Man Sentenced To Death For Killing Navy Officer In Virginia
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- A federal jury has sentenced an ex-Marine to death for murdering a fellow service member in 2009, one among a series of violent, sexually motivated attacks he committed over the years.
Twenty-five-year-old Jorge Torrez of Zion, Ill., is the first person since 2007 to be sentenced to death at the federal courthouse in Alexandria. He will join 59 other inmates on federal death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
After Torrez was found guilty earlier this month of Navy Petty Officer Amanda Snell's murder, Torrez ordered his lawyers not to put on any defense or question the government's case during the trial's sentencing phase.
Prosecutors said Torrez not only killed Snell but also murdered two young girls in his hometown of Zion when he was 16.
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