The Region - News from Dec. 15, 1986

An Orange County Superior Court judge has sentenced convicted killer Thomas Edwards to death for the 1981 shotgun murder of a 12-year-old girl. Edwards, 43, was calm as Judge James F. Judge said he should die in the gas chamber at San Quentin for the unprovoked attack on Vanessa Iberri of Lake Elsinore, who was killed during a family camping trip in the Cleveland National Forest. “He told us he was not surprised at all,” said defense lawyer Richard Schwartzberg. “He said that most of his life he had received . . . a lack of full understanding.” Edwards was convicted in March, 1983, but jurors deadlocked over the death penalty or life in prison. A second jury’s unanimous decision to sentence him to death was thrown out after the judge ruled they had heard inadmissible evidence. A third panel, assembled in October, recommended death and Judge pronounced that sentence.