Man Gets Death in Murder Retrial
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, a 9-year-old Santa Fe Springs resident, and 16-year-old Adele Jean Corrodin 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 Supreme 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.
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.
Judge Thomas F. Nuss set Feb. 7 for formal sentencing.
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