OAKLAND, Calif., July 16 (UPI) -- An ex-Navy sailor and convicted rapist could be sentenced to death if convicted of raping and killing two teens and three women in California, officials said.
Anthony McKnight, 54, is currently serving a 63-year prison sentence for the rape and attempted killings of three other women, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Wednesday.
McKnight is now on trial for the deaths of five California females killed within three months of each other in 1985, the newspaper said.
Deputy District Attorney Jim Meehan accused McKnight of bludgeoning, stabbing and sexually assaulting Betty Stuart, 22, Diane Stone, 17, Talita Dixon, 13, Monique Davis, 18, and Beverly Bryant, 24.
Meehan told the Oakland, Calif., jury Wednesday, he is "confident that these five murdered souls will be in a position where they will know that justice delayed will not have been justice denied."
McKnight could receive a death sentence if he is found guilty of five counts of murder along with special circumstances of murder committed in the course of rape, murder in the course of sodomy and multiple murder, the Chronicle said.
