'You're pure evil, and you deserve to die'

A former couple were sentenced to death Wednesday for luring a Pleasanton student into a specially rigged van where they sexually tortured and strangled her before dumping her body on a snowy embankment.

James Anthony Daveggio, 42, and his then-lover, Michelle Lyn Michaud, 43, were sentenced by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Larry Goodman in Oakland for killing 22-year-old Vanessa Lei Samson on Dec. 2, 1997.

A jury that convicted the pair recommended the death penalty in June.