A Long Beach Superior Court judge ordered death by lethal injection Tuesday for a Long Beach killer twice convicted for the slashing deaths of two local women.
Calling the defendant "a savage beast" and "the face of evil," Judge Joan Comparet-Cassani denied a motion to reduce Santiago Martinez Jr.'s death sentence to life in prison without parole and ordered he be sent to San Quentin State Prison to be killed by lethal injection.
Martinez was initially sentenced to death by a jury on Oct. 29. It took the panel only 30 minutes to agree that Martinez, who faced life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, should die for his crimes, several jurors said.
Martinez, now 28, was first convicted in 2005 of killing one girlfriend, then convicted last year of killing a second girlfriend when she refused to help Martinez dispose of the first victim's remains.
The first murder victim, Christina Wilkerson, 28, of Long Beach, was stabbed 20 times in the face, neck and body, then shot point blank with a .22 rifle on March 18, 2003. Martinez was sentenced to more than 50 years to life in prison for her death.
He was convicted last November for the murder of Myra Orozco, 24, of Long Beach.
Orozco was stabbed and slashed close to 30 times in the face, neck and body before Martinez pushed the mortally wounded woman from the car they were sitting in, then ran over her two times on March 30, 2003.
The jury in that case convicted Martinez of first-degree murder and the special circumstance of committing multiple murders, paving the way for the possibility of the death penalty.
That same jury, however, deadlocked 11-1 in favor of death, requiring a new jury to be empaneled for a second penalty phase that began on Oct. 5.
Calling the defendant "a savage beast" and "the face of evil," Judge Joan Comparet-Cassani denied a motion to reduce Santiago Martinez Jr.'s death sentence to life in prison without parole and ordered he be sent to San Quentin State Prison to be killed by lethal injection.
Martinez was initially sentenced to death by a jury on Oct. 29. It took the panel only 30 minutes to agree that Martinez, who faced life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, should die for his crimes, several jurors said.
Martinez, now 28, was first convicted in 2005 of killing one girlfriend, then convicted last year of killing a second girlfriend when she refused to help Martinez dispose of the first victim's remains.
The first murder victim, Christina Wilkerson, 28, of Long Beach, was stabbed 20 times in the face, neck and body, then shot point blank with a .22 rifle on March 18, 2003. Martinez was sentenced to more than 50 years to life in prison for her death.
He was convicted last November for the murder of Myra Orozco, 24, of Long Beach.
Orozco was stabbed and slashed close to 30 times in the face, neck and body before Martinez pushed the mortally wounded woman from the car they were sitting in, then ran over her two times on March 30, 2003.
The jury in that case convicted Martinez of first-degree murder and the special circumstance of committing multiple murders, paving the way for the possibility of the death penalty.
That same jury, however, deadlocked 11-1 in favor of death, requiring a new jury to be empaneled for a second penalty phase that began on Oct. 5.
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