PEGGY PEATTIE / Union-Tribune Sheriff's deputies replace the handcuffs on defendant Tecumseh Colbert after he received the death penalty verdict from a jury Monday.

After deliberating for about a week, the nine-woman, three-man panel decided that Tecumseh Colbert should be executed for his crimes. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for Sept. 8.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael D. Wellington has the option of following the jury's recommendation, or setting it aside in favor of sentencing Colbert to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Judges rarely go against a jury's recommendation in capital cases.

Last year, another jury convicted Colbert of first-degree murder and other charges in connection with two shootings in October and November 2004. The jury was unable to reach verdicts in the second part of the trial, known as the penalty phase.

The jurors split 8-4 in favor of sending Colbert to death row.

That portion of the case was retried last month, this time with Colbert serving as his own lawyer. He told the jury that his background – including his family life and experiences in Juvenile Hall – helps explain the violence in his past. He has written a book about his life called “State Raised,” in which he explains how he was brought up in a “broken” juvenile justice system.

During the retrial, prosecutors Robert Amador and David Grapilon questioned witnesses about the murders of Robert McCamey, 32, a mortgage broker from University City, and Richard Hammes, 45, a homeless man who worked as a clerk in an Ocean Beach liquor store.

According to previous testimony, Colbert's girlfriend at the time – Tatiana Daniel – persuaded McCamey to follow her to the Meadowbrook Apartments in Bay Terraces on Oct. 29, 2004. When McCamey got out of his Lincoln Navigator, Colbert ran up and shot him five times.

Prosecutors have said Colbert shot McCamey over a drug debt.

On Nov. 10, 2004, Colbert and another man, Theron Peters, drove to PrimeMarket Liquor on Voltaire Street in Ocean Beach. Peters waited outside in a car while Colbert entered the store wearing a mask and carrying two guns.

Colbert shot Hammes – who was filling in as a clerk that day as a favor to the owner – because Hammes refused to give him any money. Colbert bragged about the shooting the next day when he and Peters carjacked a La Mesa man looking to sell his Cadillac Escalade, prosecutors said.

Peters pleaded guilty last year to first-degree murder and other charges and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Daniel has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and other charges and is scheduled to be sentenced next week.

Dana Littlefield: (619) 542-4590; dana.littlefield@uniontrib.com