19 December 2011 :

Jurors on Tuesday recommended Michael Hughes, 55, black, get the death penalty for murdering 6 women and a teenage girl. Michael Hughes was already serving a life sentence after he was convicted 13 years ago of murdering four other women in 1992 and 1993  when a jury convicted him last month of murdering 2 other women and 15-year-old Yvonne Coleman in the "Southside Slayer" case. In December 1993, Hughes, a security guard, was arrested in Culver City. In 1998, he was convicted and given a life sentence without parole for the 1992  strangling murders of Theresa Ballard, 27, and Brenda Bradley, 37, the niece of the former mayor; and the 1993 killings of Terri Myles, 33, and Jamie Harrington. On July 3, 2008, Hughes was charged with sexually assaulting and strangling two women and two teenage girls in the Los Angeles area between 1986 and 1993, after homicide detectives linked him to DNA samples from the victims using new forensic technologies. The case of Deanna Wilson, 30, who was found in a garage on August 30, 1990, was later dropped, but was used by prosecutors to establish Hughes' pattern. Hughes killed 15-year-old Yvonne Coleman on January 22, 1986. Verna Williams, 36, was discovered in a stairwell on May 26, 1986. Deborah Jackson, 32, was found on June 25, 1993. Police say Hughes' victims were all sexually assaulted and strangled. Formal sentencing for Hughes is set for March 29.