A man who tortured and stabbed a woman to death nearly five years ago learned his fate on Thursday.
Derlyn Ray Threats was found guilty in November of first-degree murder with special circumstances in the slaying of Carolyn Neville, 24. On Thursday, San Diego Superior Court Judge K. Michael Kirkman accepted the jury’s recommendation and sentenced the former Marine to the death penalty.
According to investigators, the Vista woman walked in on Threats, who was in the process of burglarizing her home in September 2005. She had just returned home from dropping off her young son at school when she surprised her killer. Threats stabbed Neville at least 70 times, according to prosecutors.
The 29-year-old Threats was caught in a backyard near Neville's home, reported the North County Times. At the time of his arrest, he was wearing bloody socks and had a blood-spattered wooden stick and stun gun hidden in one of the legs of his sweatpants, the paper reported.
Threats' lawyer asked Kirkman for a new trial prior to sentencing, but the judge denied the request.
