Serial killer who murdered 11 women and buried the bodies in his house to be put to death

Anthony Sowell was sentenced to death by an Ohio judge for the murders of 11 women

A serial killer deserves the death penalty for murdering 11 women and dumping their bodies around his property, a judge said today.
Judge Dick Ambrose announced the decision after a 45-minute analysis of Anthony Sowell's crimes and background factors in Sowell's favor. Formal sentencing was to follow a series of statements from the relatives of victims.
Sowell slumped back in his chair without emotion as the judge announced his decision.
Dozens of relatives were in the courtroom.
As the sentencing hearing began, deputies passed around boxes of tissues to the relatives and warned against any outburst. Those asking to address the court included the daughter of one victim and a woman whose niece was killed by Sowell.
Court administrator Greg Popovich said that with a number of people expected to make statements, the hearing could run up to three hours.
Sowell was seated in court wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, his hands cuffed with waist chains. He was arrested on Halloween 2009, two days after police went to his house on a sexual-assault complaint and began finding bodies.
He went on trial in June and was convicted July 22 on 82 counts: aggravated murder, kidnapping, corpse abuse and evidence tampering.
Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Pinky Carr has said the case 'screamed death penalty.' Her prosecution colleague, Richard Bombik, said 'if this guy doesn't get the death penalty, nobody should.'
Sowell's defense team, John Parker and Rufus Sims, rested without calling witnesses and instead focused on sparing his life with sympathetic testimony about his troubled childhood, his Marine Corps service and good behavior while serving 15 years for attempted rape.
The women began disappearing in 2007, and prosecutors say Sowell lured them to his home with the promise of alcohol or drugs.

Donnita Carmichaell, daughter of a victim, raised her arms in victory as after the jury recommended the death penalty on Wednesday. The judge agreed today

Adlean Atterberry, the mother of a victim, hugged prosecuting attorney Richard Bombik after the jury's recommendation

Police discovered the first two bodies and a freshly dug grave in late 2009 after officers went to investigate a woman's report that she had been raped there.
Many of the slain women had been missing for weeks or months, and some had criminal records. They were disposed of in garbage bags and plastic sheets, then dumped in various parts of the house and yard. There was little left of one victim: a skull in a plastic bucket with non-human bite marks on the edge.
The rotting bodies created an overpowering stench that neighbors blamed on an adjacent sausage factory. The owner spent $20,000 on new plumbing fixtures and sewer lines, to no avail.
Most of the victims were nude from the waist down, strangled with household objects and had traces of cocaine or depressants in their systems. All the victims were black, as is Sowell.

Sowell, who sat slumped when he heard the judge's decision, hoped to be spared death and receive a life sentence based in part on his horrific childhood

Jurors sat through weeks of disturbing and emotional testimony before convicting Sowell. They saw photographs of the victims' blackened, skeletal corpses lying on autopsy tables and listened to police describe how their bodies had been left to rot in Sowell's Cleveland home and backyard.
Sowell took the stand Monday to make an unsworn statement in which he apologized.
'The only thing I want to say is I'm sorry,' Sowell told the jury. 'I know that might not sound like much, but I truly am sorry from the bottom of my heart.'
The jury didn't buy it: They said his statement, which was guided by questions from Parker, sounded rehearsed and lacked remorse.
Sowell wasn't subject to cross-examination, so prosecutors didn't get to ask why he killed the women and lived in the house for two years with their remains bagged in corners or buried in the backyard.
Sowell mostly sat impassively during the trial but smiled at childhood recollections by a half-brother and a greeting from his stepmother's 88-year-old mother, who looked up from the witness stand and seemed surprised to see him.