Virginia inmate receives death penalty

WISE, Va., Sept. 7 (UPI) -- A Virginia judge has sentenced a prison inmate to death twice for the murders of two fellow inmates he pleaded guilty to strangling.

Robert Gleason, 41, who represented himself at a four-day sentencing hearing, had asked for the death penalty and threatened to kill again unless he got it, the Bristol (Va.) Herald Courier reported.

"You have demonstrated a willingness and an ability … to continue to inflict harm on the people around you," said Wise County Circuit Judge John C. Kilgore, who sentenced Gleason for killing of the two inmates.

Gleason had been serving a life sentence for fatally shooting Virginia trucker Michael Keith Jamerson, 53, in May 2007 in Amherst County, Va.

At Wallens Ridge State Prison in Big Stone Gap, Va., he tied up 63-year-old cellmate Harvey Watson Jr., gagged him, beat him and strangled him in May 2009, the Courier reported.

In July of last year, he strangled inmate Alexander Aaron Cooper, 26, with a makeshift noose in the prison recreation yard at Red Onion maximum-security prison in Pound, Va.

The Courier said Gleason has waived his appeals and is scheduled to appear at a hearing Friday to determine whether he is mentally competent to do so.

The case will automatically go before the Virginia Supreme Court, which reviews all death sentences.