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Serial killer Chester Turner appeared in court in Jan. 2012. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, file)
LOS ANGELES » A man who is on death row for killing 10 women in the Los Angeles area was convicted Thursday of four more murders.
Chester Turner, 47, was convicted of strangling the women in South Los Angeles between 1987 and 1997. Prosecutors said DNA evidence linked him to the killings.
Jurors deliberated less than a day before finding the former pizza deliveryman guilty of first-degree murder with special allegations that make him eligible for the death penalty, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
Turner had been convicted and sentenced to death in 2007 for killing 10 women, including one who was pregnant. He also was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for killing the woman’s unborn baby.
Authorities say Turner was one of at least three serial killers who stalked Los Angeles-area women during a crack cocaine epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s that led some women into prostitution to support their drug habits.
The attacks were dubbed the "Southside Slayer" killings before authorities concluded more than one attacker was involved.
Two years ago, Michael Hughes was sentenced to death for strangling a 15-year-old girl and two women. He previously got life for four killings.
Former mechanic Lonnie Franklin Jr. has pleaded not guilty to 10 so-called "Grim Sleeper" killings and the attempted murder of another woman that took place between 1985 and 2007. The victims were strangled or shot and dumped in alleys near his South Los Angeles home.
