LOS ANGELES - A pizza deliveryman was sentenced to death Tuesday for murdering 10 women and a fetus during the 1980s and '90s in Los Angeles neighborhoods plagued by a crack cocaine epidemic. A jury in May recommended the death penalty for Chester Turner, and Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders agreed Tuesday.

Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies escort Chester Turner out of court after he was sentenced to death in Department 101 in the Criminal Courts building, Tuesday, July 10, 2007, in downtown Los Angeles. [AP]

"I don't think any jury would arrive at a different conclusion and would, in any court, demand a death penalty," Pounders said.

Turner, 40, showed little emotion when he was sentenced and declined to say anything after several of the victims' relatives spoke. Outside court, Turner's attorney John Tyre said nothing was accomplished by sending his client to death row.

"California spends a lot of money to put someone to death," Tyre said. "That money would be better served educating people (about crime) so things like this could be prevented."

The case will automatically be appealed.

Prosecutors said Turner preyed upon prostitutes and other impoverished women, some with drug problems, who lived primarily in South Los Angeles.

He was convicted April 30 of 10 counts of first-degree murder, plus one count of second-degree murder for the death of one victim's fetus. That victim, Regina Washington, 27, was 6 1/2 months pregnant when Turner strangled her with an electrical cord behind a vacant house in September 1989.

Washington's sister, Elgedine Rudolph, was among eight victims' relatives attending Tuesday's hearing who conveyed the anger and sorrow they've shared. Although Turner looked at each of the speakers, Rudolph said she could not even turn toward him and said she misses Washington deeply.

"I'm trying to get some peace for me and my family, but it's hard," said Rudolph, 43. "I'm glad justice is served so no one else will get hurt."

Turner was already serving an eight-year prison sentence for the 2002 rape of a woman on Skid Row when his DNA linked him to the killings, carried out between 1987 and 1998. His victims were between ages 21 and 45.

Prosecutors believe Turner accosted most of the victims, then raped and strangled them before dumping their bodies. Deputy District Attorney Robert Grace suggested during the trial Turner killed because he wanted control over his victims.

Jerri Johnson-Tripplett, whose 29-year-old pregnant daughter Andrea Tripplett was killed in April 1993, called Turner an "evil, demonic person." She said she has a difficult time believing her daughter is gone.

"We are still in disbelief that her precious life was taken from us," said a tearful Johnson-Tripplett. "The hole punched in our hearts will never close."

Turner wasn't charged with killing Tripplett's fetus because California law specified at the time that a 5 1/2-month-old fetus was not considered viable.

Jurors had agreed with the special circumstance allegations that Turner committed multiple murders and that one of the victims - 38-year-old Paula Vance, killed in downtown Los Angeles on Feb. 3, 1998 - was murdered during the commission of a rape.

There were no witnesses to any of the killings, but a security camera recorded Vance's murder, and the footage was played for jurors.

Turner also is suspected but has not been charged with four other killings. David Allen Jones, a mentally disabled janitor, was convicted of three of them but was freed after DNA evidence cleared him, prosecutors said. Jones, 44, was released in 2004 after 11 years in prison and was awarded $720,000 in compensation.