Ashford L. Thompson, May 2010
Judge Elinor Marsh Stormer sentenced Ashford Thompson, 25, to death at a hearing Wednesday morning.
Thompson was convicted in the 2008 murder of Officer Josh Miktarian earlier this month. Officer Miktarian, 33, was shot four times in the head after pulling Thompson over for loud music.
Befor the sentence was imposed, Miktarian's widow, Holly Miktarian, addressed Thompson directly.
"You need to die for this," she said, and called Thompson a "monster."
"One day my little girl is going to say, 'Mommy, there's a monster in my closet or under my bed.' And I'm going to say, 'no baby, that monster is going to be locked up the rest of his life.'"
Officer Miktarian's mother, Mindy Barlow, also addressed her son's killer.
"The shot that took his life also took mine," Barlow said. "I am dead inside. I am like a shell going through the motions of life."
"I want my son back. I want him back with his wife. I want him back with his little girl," she continued. "I want to talk to him. I want to see him smile, laugh. I want him to hug me, kiss me."
Thompson's attorneys never disputed he murdered Miktarian.
Their strategy was to try and convince the jury to spare Thompson's life. About a week after the jury convicted Thompson, the same jurors recommended the death penalty.
When it came time to Thompson to address the court, he read bible verses for about 20 minutes, and then said, "Dear heavenly father, I just pray that you'll forgive me for my sins, Lord. I come every day with this stuff, Lord."
Following the sentencing, Holly Miktarian spoke publicly for the first time since her husband was murdered. Surrounded by officers of the Twinsburg Police Department, she said, "It was just a sense of relief."
"You can't be really happy and you can't be sad. It was a sense of relief, I think. I can just let it all off my shoulders now."
WKYC-TV