CA Murderer Avoids Death Penalty with Plea:  A California man who participated in the slaying of a teenage couple over eight years ago was sentenced Tuesday to 50 years to life, skirting a possible death sentence.  The AP reports that 28-year-old David Brian Smith's sentencing comes two weeks after he pleaded guilty to murder, and he is eligible for parole.  In January 2008, Smith and two other men, Cameron Thomason and Collin McLaughlin, ordered Christopher Thompson, 18, and Bodhisattva Sherzer-Potter, 16, out of their vehicle, which the couple had been sleeping in following a party at an abandoned Air Force bunker in the Mojave Desert.  The three men, who had targeted the couple for robbery, took the teens to the bunker, forced them to kneel and shot them in the backs of the heads with a shotgun and rifle when it was discovered they had no money.  Thomason, who served as the lookout during the murders, received a 15-year sentence after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and attempted robbery in 2011.  McGlaughlin pleaded guilty to murder, kidnapping and robbery in 2013 and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

TN Man Will Face a Death Sentence:  A Tennessee man accused of fatally shooting a woman and her young son last year will face the death penalty if convicted.  The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that a notice to pursue a death sentence against accused killer Ross Anderson was filed Wednesday morning by Steve Crump, attorney general in the 10th Judicial District.  Anderson, a former firefighter, is charged with killing Rachel Johnson, 30, and her son Colton, 5, in their home last December.