LOS ANGELES -- A jury spared Skid Row Stabber Bobby Joe Maxwell the gas chamber, condemning him to life in prison without parole for two of the 10 slayings authorities say he committed in his search for souls for Satan.
Maxwell, 33, a paroled robber from Tennessee, professed to be a devil worshipper and said he stalked men and stabbed them to death in and around the seedy downtown district in the winter of 1978-79 in his search for souls for Satan.
The jurors handed down their recommended sentence Tuesday. Superior Court Judge David Aisenson will formally sentence Maxwell Sept. 6.
Maxwell was convicted last month of two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Frank Garcia, 48, and David Jones, 39, and one count of robbery.
He was acquitted of three of the slayings, and jurors who sat through the nine-month trial deadlocked on the remaining five murder counts and three counts of robbery.
The evidence against Maxwell included a message he wrote on the wall of a bus terminal bathroom: 'My name is Luther. I kill winos. I put them out of their misery.'
Because he was also convicted of special circumstances, including multiple murder, he faced only two possible punishments -- life in prison without possibility of parole or death in the gas chamber at San Quentin.
Following a two-week penalty phase, the same jury of seven women and five menthat took 25 days to convict Maxwell spent just four hours reaching their sentencing verdict.
The quickness of the penalty verdict indicated a life sentence, and Maxwell walked into the courtroom with a broad grin suggesting he realized he would not get death. The killer, wearing a blue prison jumpsuit, showed no emotion when the decision was announced, however.
Prosecutor Ernie Norris told jurors during the trial that Maxwell had 'turned Skid Row into strewn bodies of the poor, the hopeless and forgotten of our society.'
The killings occurred four years after Vaughn Greenwood, dubbed the Skid Row Slasher, cut the throats of eight residents. He was also sentenced to life in prison.
Norris said Maxwell killed his victims for several reasons - including robbery, his Satanic beliefs, and a belief they were better off dead than living in squalor.
