EL CAJON, Calif. -- A man who shot and killed two El Cajon liquor store clerks during a robbery in 2006 was sentenced to death Friday, with the judge saying he committed a "reprehensible act of brutality."

A jury took just two hours in June to recommend the death penalty for Jean Pierre Rices.

Rices, 27, pleaded guilty last year to two counts of first-degree murder and special circumstances in the March 1, 2006, execution-style slayings of Heather Mattia and Firas Eiso at Granada Liquor.

While accepting the jury's recommendation, Judge Lantz Lewis denied a motion for a new trial and a motion to reduce Rices' sentence to life in prison without parole.

"It was needless, it was heartless, it was a reprehensible act of brutality," Lewis said.

Mattia's older sister, Evelyn Mattia, called Rices "the devil" and said he should be "put sleep and sent back to hell, where he belongs.

"The devil himself walked into our family store," Mattia said. "But the devil shot her (Heather) in the head with no remorse. I pray to God the gates of hell stay closed."

Evelyn Mattia says her father wakes up in the middle of the night looking for Heather.

"He has nothing to look forward to because you murdered his baby girl," the older sister told the defendant.

Evelyn Mattia called Rices "a low-life piece of crap" for killing her sister nine days before her son turned 6.

Heather Mattia was the boy's favorite aunt, Evelyn Mattia said.

"You shattered a little boy's dream he had with Heather," her sister said.

Eiso's mother, Selma Elia, wept as she asked Rices why he murdered her son.

"When they told me about his death I was at church," the mother said. "I fell to the ground. I'm still searching for the reason that you killed him."

Mattia's cousin, Ream Khoury, told Rices he ruined her family's life and deserved to pay with his own.

"You deserve to die. You deserve to go to hell. You deserve to rot in jail from what you've done," she told the defendant.

When the judge asked Rices if he felt any remorse, he said he felt sorry for the people who died, but had no remorse for people "who go against me."

When asked if Rices was a very bad man, prosecutor Glenn McAllister said outside court, "Very bad is probably a nice way to put it. He ranks right up there among the worst of the worst."

Inside court, McAllister told the judge that Rices didn't have to kill his victims.

"Mr. Rices had what he wanted. All he had to do was leave," the prosecutor said.

Rices had a history of violence but was not a gang member. He was abandoned by his drug-addicted prostitute mother at age 5 in Los Angeles and was shuttled between family members. His grandfather said he tried to fix the youngster but couldn't, said defense attorney Mark Chambers.

Rices' mother taught him to steal and at age 12 he was arrested for carrying a Swiss Army knife to school. Rices was barely an adult when he pleaded guilty to carjacking, Chambers said.

Mattia, 22, and Eiso, 23, had just closed the store, turned out the lights and armed the security system when they were confronted outside the business around 11 p.m. by Rices, who carried a 9 mm handgun, and an accomplice who wore a mask and carried a bag.

The victims were pushed back into the store -- which was owned by Mattia's brother -- and forced to their knees, McAllister said.

He said Rices' alleged crime partner, Anthony James Miller, loaded $1,250 in cash and packs of cigarettes into his bag and conferred with Rices.

As Miller was about to leave, Rices shot both victims in the head as they begged for their lives, the prosecutor said.

Last year, Rices also pleaded guilty to robbing a Washington Mutual Bank in July 2006 and attempting to hold up a Bank of America branch that same month.

He has prior convictions for possession for sale of drugs, possession of a deadly weapon while incarcerated, and robbery, prosecutors said.

Miller faces a retrial next month after a separate jury deadlocked on his case. A status conference is scheduled next Friday.

The mother of Rices' son, Nichele Hopson, 24, pleaded guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter for being the getaway driver in the killings. She faces up to 23 years in prison when she is sentenced Nov. 20.