Click in the Eyewitness News story window above to watch Leslie Sykes' report.
The ruling Friday gave some relief to the years of suffering the Burmeister family has been through since Christina was kidnapped near a Pomona fraternity house in August 2001, robbed and murdered.
The final sentencing hearing was a milestone for Rosie Burmeister.
"To get through this and be there for my daughter to make the statement that I made today I was determined that I was not going to cry because I have done my crying. I buried my child. I go to visit her periodically. I get angry when I see her tombstone."
Prosecutor John Monaghan said the death sentence was just.
"There was no need to murder her," he said. "As the court said, he had her four hundred dollars, he could have just left it at that. But for no reason at all, he drove her up there to the mountains and he slit her throat and took her life. And I think that says it all."
It took the Pomona Superior Court panel less than a day to reach its death penalty recommendation.
CNS contributed to this report.
