Anaheim Man Gets Death Penalty for 1991 Slayings : Crime: Christian Monterroso has been ordered to die in the gas chamber for murdering two convenience store clerks, killed within four hours of each other.

An Orange County Superior Court judge Thursday ordered an Anaheim man to die in the gas chamber for murdering clerks at two convenience stores within four hours during a 1991 killing spree.

Christian Monterroso, 21, showed no emotion as Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald upheld a jury’s recommendation that he receive the death penalty for the Nov. 21, 1991, slayings of Tarsem Singh, 28, of Buena Park and Ashokkumar Patel, 38, of Yorba Linda officials said.

“Mr. Monterroso is just an individual who is out of control, just violent and mean,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Lewis Rosenblum. The prosecutor said he believes that the sentence was appropriate, given the cruelty of the “coldblooded murders.”

The men were killed within four hours of each other at stores about 10 blocks apart, officials said.

Monterroso entered the Circle K store in Anaheim and held 10 people hostage before shooting Singh four times in the back. Monterroso ordered one of the hostages to lay on top of Singh and then shot Singh twice more in the head, killing him, Rosenblum said.

“He basically shot the guy in the back, cleared out the register, came back and said, ‘You’re not dead yet’ and shot him two more times,” Rosenblum said. The robbery netted Monterroso about $14, he said.

A few hours later, Monterroso fatally shot Patel in an Anaheim liquor store, Rosenblum said.

Monterroso’s attorney had asked jurors to spare Monterroso’s life by arguing that Monterroso suffered an abusive family upbringing and had drug and alcohol problems.