Jury suggests death for 'freeway slayer'

Jurors recommended the death penalty for the man dubbed the "60 Freeway Slayer," who was convicted of killing six prostitutes and dumping their bodies along the highway running east from Los Angeles.

The jury deliberated on Ivan Hill's punishment for four days before reaching a decision Tuesday.

During testimony last month, a parade of friends and relatives had urged jurors to spare Hill's life. They described him as a good man despite being raised in an abusive home, and Hill's two sisters testified they saw their father shoot their mother on Christmas Day 1968.

Prosecutors said Hill had a violent past and deserved the death penalty.

Hill was convicted Nov. 17 of six counts of first-degree murder for the 1993 and 1994 killings of Roxanne Bates, 31, of Montclair; Helen Ruth Hill, 36, of Pomona; Donna L. Goldsmith, 35, of Montclair; Cheryl Sayers, 34, of Ontario; Betty Sue Harris, 37, of Pomona; and Debra Denise Brown, 33, of Los Angeles.