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Carasi sentenced to death for killings

SANTA MONICA, Calif., May 26 -- A 33-year-old man convicted of slashing the throats of his mother and ex-girlfriend after taking them to a Mother's Day dinner at Universal Studios in 1995 has been sentenced to death. A Santa Monica Superior Court judge imposed the sentence today on Paul Carasi, then sentenced his 46-year-old girlfriend Donna Lee to life in prison without parole for her role in the slayings.

Carasi and Lee were both convicted of first-degree murder while lying-in-wait in the deaths of 61-year-old Doris Carasi and 29-year-old Sonia Salinas, the mother of Carasi's son. The jury recommended life in prison for Lee after it deadlocked on the extent of her participation in the killings. Prosecutors contended Carasi and Lee killed the two women in a Universal Studios' parking structure as his 2-year-old son Michael sat in the back seat of the car, strapped into a child safety seat. The boy was unharmed. Carasi's attorney filed a motion to lessen the recommended death sentence for his client, saying his client was 'worthy of consideration...mercy (and) sympathy.' But Judge Leslie Light told Carasi: 'You deprived Michael of his mother. You deprived Michael of his father. You made this child an orphan. I find there is no basis whatsoever for doing anything other than imposing the penalty of death.' Lee denied any role in the killings, saying she was also attacked in the parking structure and left for dead, but managed to phone police from a freeway call box about four miles away. Carasi claimed he was knocked out by an assailant and discovered the women's bodies after regaining consciousness. ---

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Copyright 1998 by United Press International. All rights reserved.

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