Long Beach Death Penalty Ruling May Come Wednesday

By City News Service
A judge is expected to decide Wednesday whether to go along with a jury's recommendation of a death sentence for a man convicted in the rape and murder of a woman whose nude body was found on a freeway embankment in Long Beach more than 14 years ago.

Kevin Darnell Pearson's scheduled appearance before Long Beach Superior Court Judge Tomson Ong marks the second time that the 36-year-old defendant is facing a death sentence for the Dec. 29, 1998, slaying of Penny Sigler. Pearson was first sentenced to death in November 2003 for killing Sigler, but the California Supreme Court unanimously threw out his death sentence in January 2012 because of ``the trial court's improper excusal of a prospective juror because of her views on capital punishment.''

On April 15, a second jury recommended that Pearson be sentenced to death rather than life in prison without the possibility of parole. The California Supreme Court has not yet heard automatic appeals in the case of Pearson's co-defendants, Jamelle Armstrong and Warren Hardy, who were tried separately, convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for their roles in Sigler's killing.

 The 43-year-old woman was attacked around 11 p.m. Dec. 29, 1998, while walking from her Long Beach home to a store. She was raped and beaten to death with a wooden stake. She was robbed of $6 in food stamps. Sigler's body was found the next day on a freeway embankment of the northbound San Diego (405) Freeway near Wardlow Road and Long Beach Boulevard. The coroner's office determined that she had suffered 114 injuries, according to the California Supreme Court's January 2012 ruling.