Lawrence Singleton, who was paroled to public outrage after serving time for raping a California teenager and chopping off her forearms, was sentenced to death Tuesday in Tampa for murdering a prostitute in his living room. Singleton, 70, showed no reaction as he stood before the judge. “This was an unprovoked, senseless killing of a human being,” said state Judge Bob Mitcham. “We are living in times worse than Sodom and Gomorrah.” Jurors convicted Singleton of first-degree murder for stabbing to death Roxanne Hayes, a 31-year-old prostitute and mother of three. Singleton’s lawyers had argued that jurors recommended the death penalty because Singleton had won parole in 1987 after serving only eight years for raping a 15-year-old hitchhiker in 1978.
