Posted at 3:33 p.m. EST Friday, December 28, 2001

For the third time, accused serial killer given death sentence

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NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. -- (AP) -- Oscar Ray Bolin was sentenced Friday to death for the third time in the 1986 rape and stabbing death of a Tampa Bay area bank clerk.

Bolin's first two convictions and death sentences in the slaying of Teri Lynn Matthews were overturned on appeal.

The seven-time convicted killer showed no emotion as the judge pronounced sentence. It marked the seventh time he was given the death penalty in the 15-year-old slayings of Matthews and two other women.

Each of Bolin's six previous murder convictions and death sentences were twice overturned by the Florida Supreme Court.

After the sentencing, Matthews' mother, Kathleen Reeves, said she thinks it will stick this time.

``You just hope,'' she said.

Matthews, 26, was abducted from the Land O'Lakes Post Office 25 miles north of Tampa in Pasco County. Her beaten body was found wrapped in bedsheets.

Bolin, 39, a former trucker, also is awaiting retrials for the 1986 slayings of two Hillsborough County women -- Natalie Blanche Holley and Stephanie Collins.

-- Anonymous, December 30, 2001