Santiago Martinez Jr. was 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.
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 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-to-1 in favor of
death, requiring a new jury to be empaneled for a second penalty phase
that began Oct. 5 Martinez's formal sentencing, to be carried out by Judge Joan Comparet-Casani, was scheduled for today. But because the Los Angeles County Probation Department had not finished its report on Martinez, and its recommendation, formal sentencing was postponed until 8:30 a.m. Tuesday in Dept. 10.
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