Judge set to sentence convicted serial
killer Naso
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[November 22, 2013]
SAN
RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) — Joseph Naso, the 79-year-old former photographer
convicted of the decades-old killings of four women in Northern
California, is scheduled to be sentenced Friday.
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Naso will face a possible death sentence when Marin County
Superior Court Judge Andrew Sweet delivers his order as jurors voted
for the death penalty.
Naso was convicted of fatally strangling four prostitutes with
matching initials: Roxene Roggasch, Carmen Colon, Pamela Parsons and
Tracy Tafoya.
The elderly defendant represented himself at trial, often coming off
as confused and ornery. He called five witnesses, and did not
testify himself.
Though in his closing argument, Naso told the jury during he was no
monster and did not kill the women.
But prosecutors presented a trove of evidence collected from Naso's
Reno, Nev. home, including photographs of partially nude women
appearing dead or knocked out, and a journal describing rapes of
numerous underage girls and women dating back to the 1950s.
Investigators also found a "List of 10," featuring descriptions and
references to the killings and the rural areas where the bodies were
dumped.
Naso's DNA also linked him to one of the victims, Roggasch.
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However, even if Naso is sentenced to death, it is unlikely he would
ever see the state's death chamber.
There are 745 inmates already on California's Death Row and
executions have been on hold since 2006, when a federal judge
ordered an overhaul of California's execution protocol.
It's expected to take at least another year for prison officials to
properly adopt the state's new single-drug execution method and have
it cleared by the judge.
[Associated
Press]
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