SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- A drifter who pleaded guilty knowing he could receive the death penalty was ordered to die in the gas chamber for the deaths of three people in a siege last year at a Beverly Hills jewelry store.
Steven Livaditis, 23, lowered his head but showed no emotion as the verdict was read Wednesday, looking up only to glance at his weeping mother who had come from her home in Greece for the trial.
A jury had recommended the death penalty June 19. Livaditis surprised the court shortly after his trial began in April by pleading guilty, one of the few times a California defendant has entered guilty pleas to crimes carrying the death penalty.
Superior Court Judge Laurence Rittenband told Livaditis, 'There is not a single act I can find in your favor to cause me to deviate from the decision of the jury. You never showed any remorse of any kind.'
He called the killings 'ruthless, monstrous and premeditated.'
A pale, solemn-faced Livaditis, who grew up in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, was led from the packed, tightly guarded courtroom in handcuffs.
Livaditis joins 210 other condemned criminals awaiting execution at San Quentin, where there has not been an execution since April 1967. An appeal of the death sentence to the state Supreme Court is automatic.
Sophie Livaditis, 54, said after the sentencing, 'I want everybody to forgive my son.'
'He did a very bad thing,' she said tearfully. 'We want the victims to know we are very sorry.'
Deputy Public Defender Michael H. Demby said Livaditis had shown remorse for what he had done.
'He stated to me (that) he feels guilty for what he did,' Demby said in arguing for a life sentence. 'I know that what Mr. Livaditis did was a horrible thing. He was ashamed of what he did. He often expressed remorse. He doesn't know why he killed those people.'
In an interview with the Los Angeles Herald Examiner after his arrest, Livaditis said he wanted to die for his crimes.
'I'm guilty,' he said. 'I'd rather they just executed me and get it over. I dread living this type of life. I appreciate freedom.'
The convicted killer, who drifted in and out of jobs after he was thrown out of the Army Reserve in 1981 for bad attendance, began his crime career with a series of burglaries and robberies in Las Vegas.
'I had a lot of anger built inside of me,' Livaditis said. 'I felt I was cheated and kept getting the short end of the stick in life.'
The stick got shorter when Livaditis donned a gray business suit and walked into the Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry store on Rodeo Drive on June 23, 1986 with the intention of robbing it.
The robbery went sour from the beginning and Livaditis was trapped inside the store, which was soon surrounded by heavily armed police. During the siege he stabbed security guard William Smith, 54, in the back and shot saleswoman Ann Heilperin, 40, in the head.
After 13 hours in which one of the most expensive shopping areas in the world was turned into an armed camp, Livaditis put himself in the midst of three other store employees and the group walked out of the store under a shroud.
Police stunned them with flash-bang grenades and a sheriff's sharpshooter mistakenly killed store manager Hugh Skinner, 64, thinking he was the gunman.
Livaditis was charged with Skinner's death.
The two employees who survived have filed $5 million damage claims against the Beverly Hills Police Department and Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies, alleging they were negligent in handling the incident.
