Oregon Jury Recommends Execution For Nurse’s Killer

A jury on Monday sentenced suspected serial killer Cesar Francisco Barone to die for sexually assaulting and killing a nurse-midwife.

The jury deliberated 90 minutes before deciding the 34-year-old Barone deserved to die for killing Martha Bryant more than two years ago.

Bryant was attacked early in the morning of Oct. 9, 1992, as she drove home from a hospital after helping to deliver a baby.

Barone pulled alongside and shot her car full of bullets, dragged her from the vehicle and tried to rape her. He then shot her in the head and dumped her body in the middle of the road about half a mile away.

Barone showed no reaction as the jury announced the death sentence verdict. He was immediately led from the Washington County courtroom in chains. Barone becomes the 18th person on Death Row at the Oregon State Penitentiary. No prisoner has been put to death in Oregon since voters reinstated capital punishment.

Barone still faces trial on charges he killed three other women in Washington County. That trial is tentatively set for mid-May. After that, Florida wants to extradite him for trial in a slaying there.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Robert Hermann said Barone also is a suspect in more than one other killing in Oregon.

n his closing statement, Hermann told the jury no death penalty decision is easy. But, he said, “If there was ever a case where your decision became simple or easy, this is surely it.”

One juror, who asked that her name not be used, said she has had nightmares and migraine headaches since the trial began. Even though the decision on the death penalty was reached quickly, she said it was not easy.

“It was just going through my mind that he was a human being,” the juror said, “but he did a lot of monstrous things. That was what decided it.”

Hermann said that even the defense experts agreed that Barone would kill again and again if given the opportunity.

Hermann described the killing as a “brutal, senseless murder - killing for pleasure.” He said Barone became sexually excited when attacking victims, who always were chosen for their vulnerability.

An appeal is automatic in death penalty cases.

“Obviously I wish it had gone the other way. I don’t like to lose a life,” defense attorney Griffith Steinke said.

He had argued that Barone should be allowed to live so researchers could study his brain to better understand serial killers and prevent them from murdering.

“There is a greater good to be had than kill and be killed,” he said. “Somewhere in his brain is the key. We need that brain, and we need it alive to help unlock that key.”

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