ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Convicted serial killer Arthur Shawcross was sentenced to 250 years in prison for the murders of 10 women in the Rochester area during a two-year period.
Shawcross was convicted in December on 10 second-degree murder counts and received 25 years to life on each of them.
Monroe County District Attorney Howard Relin said it was the longest sentence in the history of New York state.
The 46-year-old paroled child killer cut a murderous path through Rochester's female prostitute and transient population before his capture in January 1990.
Shawcross still faces trial on an eleventh murder charge in neighboring Wayne County at a later date.
Monroe County Court Judge Donald Wisner gave Shawcross, who was silent throughout the trial, a final opportunity to speak on his own behalf Friday.
'No comment at this time,' he replied.
Earlier, Shawcross stood motionless as First Assistant District Attorney Charles Siragusa hammered away at him in front the judge, asking for the stiffest penalty possible.
Siragusa characterized Shawcross as a 'fraud and a liar ... whose stories changed to fit his needs.'
'We can't dismiss Arthur Shawcross as a demon's seed,' Siragusa said. 'He enjoys violence and inflicting pain. (He's) a killer without a conscience.'
Shawcross, a balding and paunchy food service worker, told police shortly after his Jan. 4 arrest that he killed one woman because she bent the gearshift in his car while engaging in sex, killed a second who ridiculed his sexual impotence and a third who simply stuck her head into his car window.
Shawcross, who was convicted of killing two upstate children in 1972, was paroled in June 1987 and ignited a public furor when he was placed in two upstate villages.
Eventually, he was secretly moved to the populous city of Rochester and the killings began shortly thereafter in March 1988.
Shawcross's defense attorneys unsuccessfully attempted an insanity defense by offering testimony that the killer had committed acts of cannibalism during a tour of duty in Vietnam.
They also showed a videotape of Shawcross under hypnosis in which he allegedly relived sexual abuse at the hands of his mother.
His mother, who had previously refused to speak to reporters, publicly denounced her son as a liar.
Following the sentencing, some families and friends of Shawcross's victims expressed their wish that Shawcross be subject to the death penalty, which New York state does not have.
One juror said he was glad it was all over.
'It's been a long time for us. This is the final chapter,' said juror Ron Tucker. 'It's time to get back to work and back to life.'
