SAN DIEGO -- A man was sentenced to death Wednesday for molesting and strangling two young boys near the Otay River bed in 1993, 10News reported.

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ERSKINE SENTENCED IMAGES: Boys Killed Near Otay River Bed In '93

A jury recommended on June 2 that Scott Erskine, 41, be executed for the crimes against 13-year-old Charlie Keever and 9-year-old Jonathan Sellers. The boys disappeared on March 27, 1993, while on a bicycle ride near their homes in the South Bay.

Before sentencing, Superior Court Judge Kenneth So conducted a mandatory review of whether the recommended death sentence should be reduced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Erskine was convicted last October of two counts of first-degree murder and special circumstance allegations of torture and molestation.

The jury that found him guilty deadlocked 11-1 for death, and prosecutors retried the penalty phase of the trial.

In March 2001, Erskine was serving a 70-year prison sentence for raping a San Diego woman when newly tested DNA evidence linked him to the boys' murders.

To avoid Florida's death penalty, Erskine last week pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for killing a woman in Palm Beach in 1989.

After the jury in San Diego recommended that Erskine be put to death, his attorneys presented evidence that they said showed that many jurors in capital cases form the opinion early on that the death penalty would be the only acceptable punishment.