Jury Recommends Death in Slayings of 2 College Students
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A Long Beach jury recommended Friday that a gang member be executed for killing two college students during a San Pedro carjacking, a crime that made headlines in Japan.
Raymond Oscar “Mugsy” Butler, 20, faces sentencing May 7 for the 1994 murders of Takuma Ito, 19, a Japanese citizen, and Go Matsuura, 19, a U.S. citizen born in Japan.
As heinous as the crimes were--the killer put the muzzle of his gun to the backs of his kneeling victims’ heads--the seven men and five women struggled to reach a verdict, twice telling the judge they were deadlocked.
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