Jury sentences NC man to death for teen’s murder

GASTONIA, N.C. (AP) — A Gaston County jury has sentenced Danny Hembree to death for murdering a 17-year-old girl and dumping her body in South Carolina.

The jury reached its unanimous verdict Friday afternoon after nearly 10 hours of deliberation.

The same jury convicted Hembree this month of first-degree murder in the 2009 death of 17-year-old Heather Catterton. Prosecutors say he suffocated Catterton before dumping her body in York County, S.C.

He’s also accused in the death of 30-year-old Randi Dean Saldana, whose burned remains were found near Blacksburg, S.C. Investigators also say Hembree killed 30-year-old Deborah Ratchford. He hasn’t been tried in those cases.

Defense lawyers had argued Hembree should be spared the death penalty, saying he had been abused as a child.

No one has been executed in North Carolina since 2006.