Defector Gets Death Sentence for Murder : Crime: An Estonian man who deserted the Soviet Army was convicted of killing a leader of the local emigre community who gave him shelter.

An Estonian man who was hailed as a hero after he deserted the Soviet Army and defected to the West was sentenced Friday morning to die in the gas chamber for murdering an Estonian activist who took him into her North Hollywood home.

Tauno Waidla, 23, was convicted in December of the beating and stabbing death of Viivi Piirisild, 52, a leader of Los Angeles’ Estonian emigre community.

Waidla, who defected with another Estonian army deserter, Peter Sakarias, lived with Piirisild and her husband for a year, doing odd jobs in exchange for room and board. But after a year, prosecutors said, Piirisild grew disenchanted with Waidla, who refused to find a job or pursue his studies even after she and her husband offered to pay for his college education, and she threw him out of the house.

Prosecutors alleged that Waidla and Sakarias killed Piirisild in July, 1988, in retaliation.

San Fernando Superior Court Judge Howard Schwab, in sentencing Waidla to death, said the “brutal and revolting” circumstances of the murder called for the most severe punishment society can impose. Piirisild was bludgeoned with a hatchet and stabbed repeatedly.

Martin Gladstein, Waidla’s court-appointed attorney, pleaded with Schwab to reduce his client’s sentence to life in prison without possibility of parole, saying that nothing in Waidla’s past suggests that he is “an inherently evil person.”

Earlier this year, a jury deliberated for nine days and finally recommended unanimously that Waidla be sentenced to death. Eight of the jurors came to court to watch the sentencing, although Piirisild’s family and friends were absent.

“We wanted to see this through,” said juror Fay Stillman.

Stillman said she was persuaded to recommend the death penalty by Waidla’s own testimony. He confessed to killing Piirisild when he was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol agents after he attempted to cross the U.S.-Canadian border illegally a month after the slaying.

But on the witness stand, Waidla recanted his confession, saying he had concocted it because he was afraid of police torture.

He testified that in Estonia, he had been tortured by KGB agents because of his anti-Soviet activities, and he said he was afraid he would be similarly injured unless he told the police that he had committed the crime. In truth, he said, he had been traveling across the country at the time of Piirisild’s death.

Stillman said that during the jury’s deliberations about whether to recommend the death penalty, “all I could think about was, ‘He lied, he lied.’ He was very unconvincing.”

Sakarias still is awaiting trial. He had been sent to Atascadero State Hospital after he was found to be unable to cooperate in his own defense, but he has since been returned to the custody of the court for a trial.

Waidla and Sakarias met in Leipzig, East Germany, where they were stationed after being drafted into the Soviet Army. In 1986, they stole civilian clothing belonging to Soviet officers and crept away from their camp.

The pair said they traveled 125 miles in three days, mostly on foot. At the double-fenced border with West Germany, they climbed the first barrier, then hid in a ditch while Soviet soldiers, alerted by an alarm, searched for them unsuccessfully.