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Sep 17, 2008 6:46 pm US/Eastern

Girl's Killer Formally Sentenced To Death

The judge also declared Martin, who was convicted by a jury in May, a sexually violent predator

WAYNESBURG (KDKA/AP) ― A farmhand has now been formally sentenced to the death penalty today for the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl on a southwestern Pennsylvania horse farm.

A Greene County jury found 51-year-old Jeffrey Martin guilty in May and found he deserved execution for killing Gabrielle Bechen on June 13, 2006.

In Pennsylvania, a death sentence must be formally imposed by a judge.

KDKA's Harold Hayes reports that the judge in the case has declared Martin a sexually violent predator. Martin's daughter testified at the hearing that she was molested by her father at the age of six.

Martin testified as well.

In 2006, Bechen disappeared while riding her all-terrain vehicle at a Greensboro horse farm where Martin worked.

Her body was found buried on the farm five days later.

Martin denies killing Bechen.
 
He says a man came to the farm with a body and the ATV and offered him $100 to help bury the vehicle.

Stay with KDKA for details of today's sentencing.


(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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