LOS ANGELES – A former pizza deliveryman who was sentenced to death for murdering 10 women and an unborn fetus was ordered Friday to stand trial on charges of killing four other women.
Superior Court Judge Samuel Mayerson found there was enough evidence against Chester Turner, 44, presented at a preliminary hearing for him to stand trial on four counts of murder. He is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 21.
Turner was sentenced to death for a string of murders between 1987 and 1998. The new charges allege Turner killed four more women between 1987 and 1992.
The murder charges include the special-circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder during the commission of a rape or attempted rape of all four victims, which makes Turner eligible for the death penalty. Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to pursue the death penalty again.
It wasn't immediately known who would be representing Turner in the case.
Authorities say Turner is among at least three serial killers who stalked women during a crack cocaine epidemic during the 1980s and 1990s. Police initially thought one person, known as the Southside Slayer, was responsible for the deaths of as many as 90 women.
Another man, Michael Hughes, was found guilty this week of strangling three more victims in a series of attacks stretching over a decade and faces the death penalty.
Hughes, a former security guard, was serving a life sentence for killing four women in 1992 and 1993 when he was charged with the additional killings of 15-year-old Yvonne Coleman and two prostitutes.
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