Prolific L.A. serial killer sentenced to death a second time

Serial killer Chester Dewayne Turner, already on death row for killing 10 women, on Friday was sentenced to death a second time for the deaths of four more women, prosecutors said.

Turner, 47, is one of Los Angeles’ most prolific serial killers, a man once described by prosecutors as a savage sexual predator fixated on violence.

Maxine Johnson, whose sister, Cynthia Johnson, was one of four additional victims, was relieved by the sentence, which she said ensures Turner will be kept “out of civilization.”

“He did all the victims wrong,” she said. “He’s a monster.”

Turner was convicted June 19 after a jury found him guilty on four counts of first-degree murder.

Shortly after, jurors heard testimony from the victims’ families during a penalty phase, and recommended the death sentence.

Turner was charged in 2011 after DNA evidence connected him to the 1997 slaying of Cynthia Johnson, whose body was found dumped near a church in the Green Meadows neighborhood.

He was eventually charged with the deaths of three other women -- Elandra Bunn, 33; Deborah Williams, 28; and 42-year-old Mary Edwards -- who were found strangled in South Los Angeles.

Turner, a onetime pizza deliveryman, was originally sentenced to death in 2007 for the murder of 10 other women and a 6 1/2-month-old fetus, all of the crimes occurring between 1987 and 1998.

The victims were Diane Johnson, 21; Annette Ernest, 26; Anita Fishman, 31; Regina Washington, 27, who was pregnant; Andrea Tripplett, 29; Desarae Jones, 29; Natalie Price, 31; Mildred Beasley, 45; Paula Vance, 38; and Brenda Bries, 37.

The slayings occurred mostly in a 30-block stretch of motels and apartments that runs south from Slauson Avenue along Figueroa Street -– an area then notorious for prostitution, drugs and violence.

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