SAN DIEGO -- Opening statements started Monday in the penalty phase retrial of Scott Erskine, a former South Bay man facing the death penalty for molesting and strangling two boys in 1993.

A jury was selected Thursday to hear the retrial phase.

Erskine, 41, was convicted last Oct. 1 on two counts of first-degree murder and special circumstance allegations of torture and molestation for the March 27, 1993, deaths of Charlie Keever, 13, and Jonathan Sellers, 9.

A mistrial was declared when the jury that convicted Erskine deadlocked 11-1 in favor of sending the defendant to death row. The new jury will hear the facts of the case, but will decide only if Erskine should be sentenced to death or life without parole.

In Erskine's first trial, his attorneys conceded that their client committed "unspeakable" acts against the victims but said the defendant's violent behavior stemmed from a brain injury suffered when he was 5.

The boys' bodies were found in South San Diego two days after they took a bicycle ride and disappeared.

Erskine was in prison in 2001 for raping a San Diego woman when advanced DNA technology enabled scientists reveal a match between the DNA left in Charlie Keever's mouth and that of the defendant.

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