Jury recommends sentence for serial killer "Grim Sleeper"
LOS ANGELES -- Jurors say a convicted serial killer known as the "Grim Sleeper" should be sentenced to death for the murders of nine women and a teenage girl over the course of more than 20 years.
The jury's recommendation Monday came nearly a month after 63-year-old Lonnie Franklin Jr. was convicted of 10 counts of first-degree murder. He will be formally sentenced at a later proceeding.
The victims were all young black women, some were prostitutes and most had been using cocaine before their bodies were discovered in alleys in a rough part of Los Angeles, hidden in trash bins or covered by mattresses or debris.
Most of the killings fit a similar pattern. Victims were either shot in the chest, choked - or both - and their partly clad or naked bodies were dumped in alleys and trash bins near where Franklin lived.
Franklin, 63, a former garbage collector who also worked as a mechanic for the Los Angeles Police Department, had pleaded not guilty to murder, as well as to attempted murder in the case of a woman who survived.
The killings were dubbed the work of the "Grim Sleeper" because while the first victim was found in 1985 and the last in 2007, there was a 14-year gap when no bodies turned up, although prosecutors believe his violence never ceased.
The trial's most pivotal witness was the one known survivor of Franklin's attacks.
Enietra Washington described being shot in the chest and sexually assaulted in 1988. She noticed her attacker taking a Polaroid picture of her as she slipped into unconsciousness.
When Franklin was finally arrested 22 years later, the same photograph -- showing the wounded woman slouched over in a car -- was one of many pictures found in his house. When his arrest was announced six years ago, authorities displayed dozens of photos of black women and appealed for the public's help in identifying them. This trial has been focused on 11 victims, but police suspect there were more.
Victims' family members and community residents complained the killings weren't thoroughly investigated because victims were poor and black, and some were prostitutes who had been using cocaine.