USA - California. Judge William Gallagher sentenced Scott Paul Varner to death

Shasta County Superior Court Judge William Gallagher sentenced Scott Paul Varner to death. Varner, 29, hispanic, was convicted in October of first-degree murder in the 2005 strangulation death of 35-year-old Jeanette Renee Mariedth. Varner kidnapped Mariedth from her State Street home in November 2005 with his former co-defendant Joanna Peterson. Peterson, now 21, testified during the guilt-phase of Varner’s murder trial that he punched and strangled the terrified woman, but also admitted that she did nothing to stop him. Peterson pleaded guilty in November 2008 to second-degree murder in exchange for a 15-year-to-life prison sentence, and a sentencing date for her may be set on Friday. She was ineligible for the death penalty because she was 17 at the time of the slaying.