Killer gets death sentence in murder of Auburn student

OPELIKA, Ala. (AP) An Alabama judge has sentenced a man to die for the murder of an Auburn University freshman from metro Atlanta.

Lee County Circuit Judge Jacob Walker imposed the sentence Wednesday on 26-year-old Courtney Lockhart of Smiths.

Jurors convicted Lockhart of capital murder last year in the gunshot slaying of 18-year-old Lauren Burk of Marietta, Ga., on March 4, 2008.

The jury voted 12-0 to recommend a sentence of life without parole for Lockhart, who's a veteran or the Iraq War, but the judge has the final say under Alabama law. Walker says Lockhart should be put to death, and he notes that Lockhart was suspected in other crimes that jurors didn't know about.