|
 Marin County Superior Court Judge Andrew Sweet called 79-year-old
Joseph Naso an "evil and disturbed man" as he issued the sentence,
the Marin Independent Journal reported (http://bit.ly/18dYh1J).
Jurors had recommended the death penalty.
Sweet said Naso inflicted "abhorrent and repugnant levels of
suffering and cruelty" on the victims.
"You being in this world, Mr. Naso, has made this world a worse
place," Sweet said.
The former photographer was convicted of strangling four prostitutes
in Northern California with matching initials: Roxene Roggasch,
Carmen Colon, Pamela Parsons and Tracy Tafoya.
Naso represented himself at trial, often coming off as confused and
ornery. He called five witnesses, but did not testify himself.
In his closing argument, he told the jury he was no monster and did
not kill the women. On Friday, he said the prosecution was a "hate
crime" against him, and he shouldn't have been arrested or charged,
the Marin Independent Journal reported. The newspaper said Naso was
seen raising his middle finger to the courtroom audience.
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.
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Prosecutors also introduced evidence that Naso had killed two other
women, Sharileea Patton and Sara Dylan, although he was not charged
with their deaths.
Sweet heard from family members of the victims at the sentencing
hearing.
"We lost the ability to have love from a mother," Rachael Smith, one
of Carmen Colon's daughters, told the judge. "I don't want him to
die. I want him to sit there alone. I want him to feel what it's
like to lose everything."
Despite the death sentence, Naso is unlikely to 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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