STATE : Jury Rules Death for Mass Killer

Mass murderer Ramon Salcido should die in the San Quentin gas chamber for the 1989 wine country slayings of seven people, including his wife, two of their children, three in-laws and his boss, a jury decided today.

Salcido, 29, showed no reaction when an interpreter told him the jury’s ruling. Superior Court Judge Reginald Littrell set formal sentencing for Dec. 17.

Juror Dory Horn, 49, of South San Francisco, wept as the panel’s ruling was read in court and tears continued to flow as she told reporters that deciding the case “was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”

“You know you’re deciding to take somebody else’s life,” she said, adding that she knew the jury reached the right conclusion.

Salcido, who fled from Sonoma County to his home town of Los Moches after the April, 1989, slayings, was convicted of shooting or slashing to death his wife, Angela, his 4-year-old and 22-month-old daughters, Sofia and Teresa, his mother-in-law, Marion Richards, her 12-year-old and 8-year-old daughters, Ruth and Maria, and Tracey Toovey, 35, the wine master at Grand Cru winery in Glen Ellen.