SAN DIEGO -- A jury began deliberating Tuesday whether a convicted rapist who molested and killed two South Bay boys more than 10 years ago should be put to death for the crimes.

Scott Erskine, 40, was found guilty Oct. 1 of two counts of first-degree murder and special circumstances of torture and molest for the March 27, 1993, deaths of Charlie Keever, 13, and Jonathan Sellers, 9.

The jury that convicted Erskine, (pictured, left), must now recommend his punishment: life in prison without parole or lethal injection.

In her closing argument, Deputy Public Defender Juliana Humphrey said Erskine learned about violence at an early age, watching his father abuse his mother.

Humphrey said Erskine was a mentally disturbed sex offender who never received medical treatment for his condition.

"The sad fact is that Scott should have been institutionalized (for) a long time," Humphrey said.

Humphrey told the jury Erskine did not deserve mercy, but implored jurors not to sentence him to death.

"Do we need to kill somebody who's caged?" Humphrey asked. "Is that the only justice we have? We need not kill this man who's no longer a threat to us."

Monday, defense attorney Larry Ainbinder suggested to jurors that there were questions worthy of serious consideration before they embarked on the "God-like decision."

Ainbinder said Erskine suffered brain damage when he was hit by a car in 1968 when he was 5.

There was "something different about him after the accident," Ainbinder told the jury. "This accident is a defining feature of this case."

Deputy District Attorney Valerie Summers told jurors Erskine deserved the death penalty for what he did to the victims.

"You know the death penalty is the ultimate sanction," Summers said. "And these are the ultimate crimes."

Erskine was in prison in 2001 for raping a woman when advanced DNA technology enabled scientists to learn that someone else's DNA was left in Keever's mouth.

A "cold DNA hit" on prison inmates revealed a match between the DNA left in the older child's mouth and the defendant.

Erskine's DNA also was found on two cigarette butts left on the ground outside the fort where the boys were killed.