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Los Angeles: A man who murdered 11 people by causing a commuter rail disaster was spared the death penalty by jurors who wept while listening to victims' relatives but decided he should get life in prison without parole.
Juan Alvarez parked his gasoline-doused sport utility vehicle on railroad tracks in January 2005, causing a Los Angeles-bound Metrolink train to derail and crash into another train going the other way.
Aside from the dead, about 180 people were injured in the wreck in Glendale, northeast of Los Angeles.
The jury, which convicted Alvarez last month, had heard the prosecution describe him as a remorseless, smirking defendant who did not think of the case as a tragedy.
The defense painted the 29-year-old as a mentally disturbed man who was almost aborted by his mother, was shaped by a childhood of horrific abuse and became a methamphetamine addict.
Sentencing was set for August 20. During the penalty phase, jurors cried openly after hearing testimonies by survivors of the dead.
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