San Diego

A Superior Court judge Friday sentenced Christopher Clark Box, 22, to die in the gas chamber for murdering three people during a drug-related robbery in Clairemont in 1989.

Judge J. Perry Langford said the crimes displayed “awesome callousness.” Box had been convicted of the murders by a jury in December.

The sentence will automatically be appealed to the California Supreme Court.

If the death sentence is overturned, Box will still serve four consecutive life terms.

Box, along with co-defendant Manuel Flores Jr., killed April Gilhousen, 20, her son Bryan, 3, and house guest Kevin Chandler. The bodies of the three victims were found in different locations in Clairemont.

Box and Flores also were convicted of the attempted murder of Rodney Nicholson, who approached the Gilhousen residence on the morning of the crimes and was chased down Clairemont Mesa Boulevard by a bat-wielding Box.

The pair were also convicted of conspiracy, residential burglary and residential robbery for stealing one pound of marijuana and more than $2,000.

Co-defendant Flores, 18, could not be sentenced to death because he was a juvenile at the time of the murders. He will be sentenced sometime this spring, following a three-month diagnostic study at the California Youth Authority.

Langford ordered that Box be delivered to the warden of the San Quentin prison within 10 days.