STATE : Mass Slayer Salcido Gets Death Sentence, Begs for Forgiveness

Ramon Salcido was sentenced to die in the San Quentin gas chamber for the 1989 wine-country murder spree that claimed the lives of his wife, two daughters and four other people.

“I ask everyone to forgive me for the things that I have done,” Salcido told Sierra County Superior Court Judge Reginald Littrell. “I want to express that I repent for the things that have happened to the family that I loved the most, and for all the grief and pain I have caused,” he said.

Before Salcido was sentenced, Robert Richards, whose wife, three daughters and two granddaughters were “slaughtered” by Salcido, sobbed loudly as he urged Littrell to follow the jury’s recommendation and order the death penalty.

Salcido, 29, was convicted on Oct. 30 of the April, 1989, murders of his wife, two daughters, his mother-in-law, his wife’s two young sisters and a winery co-worker.

Public Defender Marteen Miller, Salcido’s attorney, had asked that sentencing be delayed until Jan. 17 to allow time for Mexican officials to prepare a request that Salcido’s life be spared under a no-death clause in Mexico’s extradition treaty with the United States.