Man sentenced to die for 1984 death of NC woman

CHARLOTTE — A man convicted in the death of a North Carolina woman 25 years ago has been sentenced to die.

A jury in Charlotte deliberated less than three hours before returning the death sentence Monday for Michael Wayne Sherrill.

The same jury last week found Sherrill guilty of killing 23-year-old Cynthia Dotson, who was raped and stabbed 13 times before her mobile home was set on fire in 1984.

The Charlotte Observer reported that authorities obtained a match on DNA in 2004 from material extracted from under Dotson’s fingernails that had been preserved.

Sherill’s lawyers said he had straightened out his life after a difficult childhood and drug addiction that may have played into the killing. They say he had become a truck driver and took care of his parents before they died.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)