Gay Slaying Death Term Upheld

SAN FRANCISCO —  The state Supreme Court today unanimously upheld the death sentence of James Andrew Melton for the 1981 robbery and strangling of a 77-year-old man he met through a personal ad in a gay newspaper.

Melton, 37, who had a long criminal record starting with a California Youth Authority commitment at age 13 and had been released from prison shortly before the murder, is the fifth man whose death sentence has been affirmed by the conservative majority court in the last eight days. Melton was convicted of killing Anthony DeSousa, whose naked body was found in the bed of his Newport Beach condominium in October, 1981, with a cord wrapped around his neck. The chief prosecution witness, Johnny Boyd, who got immunity, said he and Melton had been lovers in prison and had plotted to rob elderly men who ran personal ads in a homosexual publication.