The State - News from July 20, 1988

A judge 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.” San Diego Superior Court Judge Herbert Hoffman imposed the sentence recommended June 27 by the same jury that convicted Carpenter 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. Hoffman could have sentenced Carpenter, 58, of San Francisco to life in prison without parole. He refused to do so, however, after recounting Carpenter’s criminal history since 1960, which involves at least eight violent attacks on women.