JURY SENTENCES MAN TO DEATH IN TORTURE SLAYING.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. A 28-year-old man convicted of torturing an acquaintance with a propane torch A propane torch is a tool for burning the flammable gas propane. The maximum adiabatic flame temperature a propane torch can achieve with air is 2268 kelvins (1995 °C/3623 °F). before burning him alive has been sentenced to death. Spencer Brasure of Hawthorne was convicted last month of first-degree murder, torture, kidnapping kidnapping, in law, the taking away of a person by force, threat, or deceit, with intent to cause him to be detained against his will. Kidnapping may be done for ransom or for political or other purposes. and other charges in the Sept. 6, 1996 slaying of Anthony Guest. On Monday, after a weeklong penalty proceeding, the jury decided Brasure should be executed. During the sentencing hearing, Guest's mother, Lee Anderson, urged the judge to impose the most severe sentence possible. ``He enjoyed it, he wanted him to suffer,'' Anderson said of Brasure. ``There is only one just decision in this case - only one.'' Prosecutors said Brasure, and co-defendant Billy Davis, 21, kidnapped Guest as a favor to a female friend. The woman had dated the 20-year-old Redondo Beach Redondo Beach (rĭdŏn`dō), city (1990 pop. 60,167), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1892. Once a commercial port for Los Angeles, it is a residential and resort city with a protected harbor and an excellent marina. resident and wanted Brasure to beat him up after they broke up, prosecutors said. The woman denied any knowledge of Brasure's ultimate plans. During the trial, jurors were told that Brasure burned Guest with a propane torch and shocked him with electric current. The next morning, Brasure and Davis drove Guest to a campground near Gorman where they doused him with gasoline and set him on fire with a road flare, prosecutors said. Davis, also charged with murder, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity not guilty by reason of insanity n. plea in court of a person charged with a crime who admits the criminal act, but whose attorney claims he/she was so mentally disturbed at the time of the crime that he/she lacked the capacity to have intended to commit a crime. and is due to stand trial later this year. Although most of the crimes occurred in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County, the case was tried in Ventura County because that is where the murder occurred. |
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