| A man was sentenced to death for luring five women to a camper, strangling them during sex and dumping their bodies around a neighborhood.
Cory Morris was sentenced Tuesday in Maricopa County Superior Court, said Bill FitzGerald, a spokesman for prosecutors. He had been convicted July 11 of five counts of first-degree murder in the killings in 2002 and 2003.
Morris, 27, sat quietly as the verdicts were read. His defense attorney, James Logan, described him as naive and argued that there was no evidence of premeditation.
The women _ Barbara Codman, Shanteria Davis, Jade Velazquez, Sherri Noah and Julie Castillo _ were in their 30s or 40s and had drug or alcohol problems. One was a friend of Morris; several were prostitutes.
The women were killed in a camper behind a house owned by Morris' aunt, and their bodies were dumped in nearby alleys or on sidewalks. The women were allegedly killed for Morris' sexual gratification.
Morris contended the deaths were accidental.
Relatives had let Morris, a part-time karaoke disc jockey, sleep in the camper until he could get a stable job. A break in the case came when Morris' uncle went to check on a foul odor coming from the camper and discovered a body.
Morris was a suspect in the death of a sixth woman, Janice Irvin, but he was never charged. |
