Triple murderer who brutally slit victims' throats after stabbing them and stealing their cars erupts in court at judge as he is sentenced to death in Massachusetts

  • Gary Lee Sampson, 57, was handed a death sentence in Boston court on Friday
  • Sampson admitted to killing three men in a carjacking rampage in 2001
  • He erupted and swore at Boston judge in court after being sentenced to death
  • Family of victims - Philip McCloskey, 69, Jonathan Rizzo, 19, and Robert Whitney, 58 - confronted him in court saying they hoped he rotted in hell 

By Reuters

Published: 11:48 EST, 3 February 2017 | Updated: 12:53 EST, 4 February 2017

A Massachusetts man who admitted to killing three people in a 2001 carjacking rampage erupted in court when a judge sentenced him to death.

Gary Lee Sampson, 57, was handed his death sentence for two of the murders in a Boston court on Friday.

Massachusetts' state laws do not allow for the death penalty but Sampson was tried in federal court because his killings began with carjackings, which is a federal crime.

Sampson, a former drifter and bank robber, started the hearing with an outburst of profanity directed at U.S. District Judge Leo Sorkin. 

Gary Lee Sampson, 57, (pictured in 2004) who admitted to killing three people in a 2001 carjacking rampage erupted in a Boston court on Friday when a judge sentenced him to death

Family members of Sampson's three victims - Philip McCloskey, 69, Jonathan Rizzo, 19, and Robert Whitney, 58 - confronted him during the hearing with McCloskey's son Scott saying he hoped Sampson rotted in hell.

'He brays and gloats about what he's done,' Scott McCloskey said. 'They don't come any worse than Gary Lee Sampson... an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.'

Sampson was first condemned to death in the same court in 2004 but that sentence was overturned in 2011 because one of the jurors had lied about her history as a victim of domestic abuse. 

'This trial has been more difficult than the first. So much unbearable pain,' said Mary Rizzo, the mother of Sampson's youngest victim, told him. 'I will never forgive you for this. I don't believe God will either.'

Sampson stabbed Jonathan Rizzo, 19, and Philip McCloskey, 69, more than a dozen times after stealing their cars in Massachusetts in 2001

Sampson surrendered to police after his killing spree in Massachusetts and neighboring New Hampshire. 

He carjacked Rizzo, a George Washington University junior from Kingston, and McCloskey, a retired pipefitter from Taunton, stabbed them each more than a dozen times, slit their throats and left them to die in the woods. 

Sampson received a separate life sentence for strangling to death 58-year-old Robert 'Eli' Whitney (pictured) in New Hampshire

Prosecutors said the killings were especially cruel because Sampson repeatedly assured the men that he only wanted their cars and would not kill them if they followed his instructions. They did, but he killed them anyway, telling police he didn't want to leave any witnesses. 

The sentencing hearing followed a two-month trial during which jurors saw the weapons he used and heard tapes of him admitting the killings to police. It included him saying that after murdering his last victim, Whitney, he cooked breakfast while the man was dead in the bathroom.

Sampson received a separate life sentence for killing Whitney in New Hampshire. 

It is a rarity to see two death penalty cases in liberal-leaning Massachusetts within a two-year period. 

Convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death in federal court in May 2015.

Sampson, a former drifter and bank robber, started the hearing with an outburst of profanity directed at U.S. District Judge Leo Sorkin (pictured) who was handing him the death sentence

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