Death recommended for US man convicted of killing 4 women with matching initials

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – A jury has recommended death for a 79-year-old man convicted in the decades-old murders of four California women whose first and last names began with the same initials.

The panel deliberated for about four hours Tuesday in the penalty phase of the trial after hearing closing arguments from Joseph Naso, who represented himself and had asked the jury to spare his life.

Naso, a former photographer, was previously convicted of murdering Roxene Roggasch, Carmen Colon, Pamela Parsons and Tracy Tafoya, prostitutes who were strangled and dumped in rural areas.

The murders were cold cases until 2009, when probation officers in Reno, Nevada, conducted a routine firearms search of Naso’s home and found a macabre collection of evidence that led to his conviction.

He will be formally sentenced at a later date by Judge Andrew Sweet.

Prosecutors had argued for the death sentence, presenting grisly photos of the women’s lifeless bodies. Prosecutor Dori Ahana let a timer tick down from two minutes to zero — the time it takes an asphyxiated person to die.

Even though the jury recommended death, it is unlikely Naso would be executed if a judge agrees. There are 725 inmates already on California’s Death Row and executions have been on hold since 2006, when a federal judge ordered an overhaul of California’s execution protocol.

It will take at least another year for prison officials to properly adopt the state’s new single-drug execution method and have it cleared by the judge.