Penalty Phase of Murder Trial Delayed

The penalty phase of Mitchell Carleton Sims’ first-degree murder trial was postponed until Monday after defense attorney Morton P. Borenstein became ill late last week.

Sims was convicted May 20 of murdering a Glendale pizza deliveryman. Jurors now must decide whether the 26-year-old South Carolina native should receive the death penalty or life in prison without possibility of parole.

His accomplice in the murder, 21-year-old Ruby Carolyn Padgett, also of South Carolina, was convicted in February of first-degree murder. She is scheduled to be sentenced June 26 to life in prison without the possibility of parole, since the prosecution had not sought the death penalty.