Prosecutors No Longer Seek Death for Killer of 2

Los Angeles County prosecutors announced Thursday that they will not seek the death penalty a third time against Kenneth Dean Hunt, who was convicted of strangling two Westside women a decade apart.

Hunt, 35, was found guilty of first-degree murder and rape in the killings of Myra Davis, 71, and Jean Orloff, 60. Orloff, an oral surgeon’s assistant, was found dead in her apartment in March 1998. Ten years earlier, Davis, who had worked as an actress and had appeared as the body double for Janet Leigh in the movie “Psycho,” was found strangled and raped in her home.

Hunt eluded arrest until a coroner discovered that Orloff did not die of natural causes, as authorities had first informed her relatives. A tip led police to Hunt, who was linked to the Davis killing.

After convicting the handyman of the two murders, a jury deadlocked on the death penalty, voting 11 to 1 in favor of capital punishment. In July, a second jury voted 10 to 2 in favor of death. Judge Jacqueline Connor declared both mistrials.

Hunt faces a term of life without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced in Los Angeles Superior Court on Nov. 6.

A district attorney’s committee made the decision not to conduct the penalty phase a third time. The committee considered the likelihood of a unanimous death verdict, the expense of another three-week penalty phase trial and the desires of the victims’ relatives.

“We think he absolutely deserved the death penalty,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Laura Maglinger-Kessner. “But we have to take into consideration the wishes of the family.”