USA - California. A jury returned with a death penalty verdict for Kevin Darnell Pearson, 35, black

A Los Angeles County jury returned with a death penalty verdict for Kevin Darnell Pearson, 35, black, in the retrial of the sentencing portion in a case involving the 1998 rape, robbery, torture and murder of Penny Sigler. Pearson, 1 of 3 men convicted in the Dec. 29, 1998 crime, was given the death penalty on November 19, 2003 for the 2nd time in the Long Beach Superior Courthouse. Superior Court Judge Tomson Ong will formally impose sentencing on May 22. Pearson had his original death sentence from 2003 overturned by California Supreme Court last year (see January 9, 2012), when it ruled a potential juror was improperly dismissed. Pearson's accomplices, Jamelle Armstrong and Warren Justin Hardy, were tried separately and also convicted and sentenced to death.<