SAN DIEGO : Penalty Trial Starts for Convicted Killer

A trial began Monday to determine if Jessie Ray Moffett, who was convicted two weeks ago of two counts of murder and a host of other crimes, will be sentenced to die in the gas chamber.

The trial began with dramatic testimony by a woman who testified that Moffett and two other men gang-raped her at the Tecolote Canyon Recreation Center, near the site where Moffett killed one of his victims.

Although Moffett freed the woman after the attack, she testified that he threatened her during her ordeal. “I’m going to have to kill you because you can identify me,” she said he told her.

The same jury that will recommend either the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole found that Moffett was the principal actor in a four-week crime rampage that culminated in the Dec. 19, 1987, shooting death of 67-year-old Glen J. Avery at the Aero Drive Holiday Inn, where he worked as a security guard.

The 33-year-old San Diego man was also convicted of killing Debra E. Owen, 20, at the Linda Vista Recreation Center in 1979. In a previous trial, a jury deadlocked, 7 to 5, in favor of acquittal on this charge.

All told, Moffett was convicted of 17 counts plus four special circumstance allegations, all of which make him eligible for the death penalty.