VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Update: A three-time convicted murderer has been sentenced to life in prison.
Robert Hayes was sentenced late Wednesday after hours of jury deliberations.
Jury sentences Hayes to life in prison #breaking https://t.co/LApPGs4tig
— Mike Springer WFTV (@mspringerwftv) March 3, 2022
The state argued the way in which the women were killed warrants the death penalty.
Read our previous coverage below:
Jury deliberations are underway in the sentencing phase of a three-time convicted murderer.
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Robert Hayes was found guilty last week on three counts of first-degree premeditated murder.
Now, jurors are deciding whether he should be put to death.
It took the jury over nine hours last week to convict Hayes on those three charges. Now they must weigh the arguments by the state and his defense team to decide if his life should be spared.
Hayes was convicted of the murders of Laquetta Gunther, Julie Green and Iwana Patton.
Each was shot in the head, left disrobed and in a remote spot in Daytona Beach back in 2005 and 2006, when Hayes was a student at Bethune Cookman University.
The state argued the way in which the women were killed warrants the death penalty.
Hayes is expected to head to Palm Beach County next where he will be tried for murder in another death penalty case.
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