Man sentenced to death for killing his parents with baseball bat

BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) A 25-year-old man was sentenced Friday to death for fatally beating his parents with a baseball bat while they slept.

Blaine Ross was convicted earlier this year on two counts of first-degree murder.

``Accordingly, Blaine Ross, you have not only forfeited your right to live among us, but under the laws of the state of Florida you have forfeited your right to live at all,'' Circuit Judge Edward Nicholas said.

Ross originally told police he came home and discovered the bodies of his parents, Richard A. Ross, 54, and Kathleen M. Ross, 52, on Jan. 7, 2004. He was charged several days later with the crime. In a confession to police, Ross said he didn't remember committing the crimes because he had been using alcohol, marijuana and Xanax.

Prosecutors said Ross killed his parents because they told him to grow up and they cut him off financially.

``They were just sentences for terrible deeds,'' Art Brown, assistant state attorney said.

The case will automatically be appealed to the Florida Supreme Court.

``This is not an appropriate case for the death penalty, and I am very sorry that the state of Florida saw fit to pursue that here,'' assistant public defender Adam Tebrugge told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Information from: Sarasota Herald-Tribune, http://www.herald-trib.com


(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. In the interest of timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain occasional typographical errors. )