Suspected La. serial killer gets life

BATON ROUGE, La., Aug. 16 (UPI) -- A Louisiana judge Monday sentenced suspected serial killer Derrick Todd Lee to life in prison without parole for the murder of a Baton Rouge woman.

Lee was convicted of second-degree murder last week in the slaying of Geralyn DeSoto, a Louisiana State University graduate student. He made no comment when he was sentenced, The Advocate reported.

DeSoto's relatives offered emotional victim impact statements.

"Thank God my daughter gave her soul to Christ before you took it," said her father, John Barr. "We know where your soul is going."

Police say DNA evidence has linked Lee to the deaths of seven women in south Louisiana between April 1998 and March 2003.

Lee was tried for the first time in the DeSoto case. He faces trial next month on a first-degree murder charge in the slaying of Charlotte Murray Pace. If convicted, he would face the death penalty in that case. He has pleaded innocent.