Facts of the Crime:
A District Court jury convicted Charles Conner of first-degree murder and two counts of sexual assault for raping and beating to death 23-year-old Beth Lynn Jardine with a claw hammer in 1985. The jury of 11 women and one man handed down the death sentence after about four hours of deliberation. Beth Jardine's murder had gone unsolved for 22 years before a Las Vegas cold case detective in 2007 matched DNA recovered from the crime scene with records from a national database. The DNA matched Conner, who was convicted in 1996 of raping and kidnapping a 10-year-old girl.
The murder trial, which began more than two weeks ago, featured graphic photos of Jardine's bloodied face. Crime scene photos showed blood spatters on the apartment's floor, walls and ceiling.
On June 3, 1985, Jardine, an airman second class stationed at Nellis Air Force Base, was found nude and beaten to death in her northeast Las Vegas apartment by maintenance workers. Conner had hit Jardine more than 20 times in the head, according to testimony from a Clark County medical examiner.
While the death penalty verdict was read, Conner stood stoically with his attorneys.
Conner was sentenced to death on July 26, 2010.
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