CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : RIVERSIDE : Man Sentenced to Death for Killing Girl, 7
A career criminal already serving a life term for a rampage of sexual assaults against women and children was sentenced to death for kidnaping, torturing and murdering a 7-year-old girl. Superior Court Judge Gordon R. Burkhart pronounced sentence on Warren James Bland, who was convicted in March of the sexual torture and strangulation of Phoebe Ho of South Pasadena. Phoebe disappeared on her way to school Dec. 11, 1986. Her body was found a week later in a ditch in Glen Avon, a rural Riverside County community. Bland, 57, whose mild, grandfatherly looks belie 14 prior convictions for violent felonies, had been paroled 11 months earlier from a conviction for abducting and molesting a 14-year-old boy.
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