Man Condemned to Death Again for Girls’ Murders

A La Mirada man whose death sentence for raping and murdering two girls eight years ago was overturned by the state Supreme Court in 1984 was condemned to death a second time Thursday.

Norwalk Superior Court jurors deliberated for only two hours before returning to recommend that Michael Dee Mattson, 32, should die in the gas chamber for the 1978 strangulation slayings of Cheryl Gutierrez, 9, of Santa Fe Springs and Adele Jean Corrodin, 16, of El Toro.

“It was a pretty quick verdict,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Roy Saukkola.” It was a good jury.”

Mattson already is under a life sentence in Nevada for a 1978 kidnaping and rape of a North Las Vegas student.

Originally sentenced to death for the California killings in 1980, Mattson’s conviction was reversed four years later when the state high court ruled that his confession should not have been admitted at the trial. After his arrest, Mattson had initially asked for a lawyer but was not provided one. Then, under renewed police questioning, he incriminated himself, justices said.

Confession Ruled Valid

But after a week of hearings last spring, a Norwalk Superior Court judge determined that the confession could be used as evidence in a retrial.

On parole after serving three years in an Oregon state prison for the 1971 kidnaping and rape of a 19-year-old woman, Mattson was living in La Mirada when the killings of Cheryl Gutierrez and Adele Jean Corrodin occurred in the late summer of 1978.

Mattson confessed to their killings and the rape a few days later of a 15-year-old Seal Beach girl when he was arrested in Nevada in the crimes there.

The Seal Beach teen-ager, who survived the attack when she “begged and pleaded” with Mattson for her life, was a key witness against him, Saukkola said.

Judge Thomas F. Nuss set Feb. 7 for formal sentencing.