By The Associated Press
LONG BEACH, Calif. - A judge in Long Beach has sentenced a California man to death for murdering a girlfriend who refused to help him dispose of another girlfriend's body.
Santiago Martinez of Long Beach was sentenced Tuesday in Superior Court to die by lethal injection A jury last month recommended death for the 28-year-old Martinez, who was convicted for the 2003 killing of Myra Orozco. A previous jury deadlocked over the penalty.
Orozco, a 24-year-old Long Beach resident, was stabbed and slashed nearly 30 times, pushed from a car and run over.
Prosecutors say she was killed because she refused to help Martinez dump the body of a woman he had killed two weeks earlier.
Martinez already is serving 52 years to life for the murder of Christina Wilkerson, who was stabbed 20 times and shot.
Copyright © 2010 Canadian Press