2nd Death Penalty for Carpenter

A judge today sentenced David J. Carpenter to die in the gas chamber for five Northern California murders, the second death sentence he faces for a series of so-called “Trailside Slayings.”

Superior Court Judge Herbert Hoffman imposed the sentence recommended June 27 by the same jury that convicted Carpenter, 58, of San Francisco, of first-degree murder in the 1980 killings. “The court agrees with the prosecution’s view that these crimes were committed with calculated viciousness, and each one after careful deliberation,” Hoffman said.