Ga. killer sentenced to death in beheading case

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man found guilty in the 2007 slaying and decapitation of a Georgia nurse has been sentenced to death by a jury.

The jury in Tallahassee deliberated for about an hour today before reaching its decision involving 64-year-old Gary Michael Hilton. Last week Hilton was found guilty in the killing of 46-year-old nurse Cheryl Hodges Dunlap of Crawfordville, Ga.

He was earlier sentenced to life in prison in exchange for a guilty plea in the January 2008 slaying of 24-year-old Meredith Emerson of Athens, Ga.

The headless bodies of the women had been found in forests where Hilton had camped, Dunlap’s remains in the Florida Panhandle and Emerson’s in northern Georgia.

Authorites say Hilton is a suspect in at least three other killings in the South.