Relatives of women murdered by the "Grim Sleeper" serial killer have angrily challenged him in court as he was sentenced to death.

The emotional scenes came as a judge told Lonnie Franklin, 63, she would uphold a jury's recommendation that he be executed.

Wednesday's hearing came two months after he was found guilty of killing 10 victims over two decades.

The former rubbish collector fatally shot or strangled nine women and a 15-year-old girl between 1985 and 2007.

Image: He stalked the streets of South Los Angeles, preying on prostitutes and drug addicts

"The defendant took my daughter, murdered her, put her in a plastic bag - a trash bag - like she was trash," said Laverne Peters, reports the Los Angeles Times. Her 25-year-old daughter was found in a bin in 2007.


"My hope is that he spends the rest of his glory days in his jail cell, which will become his trash bag."

Other victims' relatives who were in court said: "Amen."

Another woman, whose 18-year-old daughter was murdered, directly challenged Franklin in court.

"I'd like to know, why?" Mary Alexander asked, after demanding he turn and face her.

Franklin whispered something twice inaudible in response, reports the Los Angeles Times.

All his victims were found dumped in alleys and rubbish bins in South Los Angeles.

An 11th victim survived after being shot, raped, pushed out of a car and left for dead in 1988.

The killings came in two spurts 14 years apart, a hiatus that earned the killer his Grim Sleeper nickname.

Since his indictment in March 2011 Franklin has been linked to six more deaths, according to police.

He was arrested and charged in July 2010 after DNA collected from pizza crusts and napkins at a birthday party linked him to more than a dozen crime scenes.

Prosecutors said Franklin went after vulnerable young black women during LA's crack cocaine epidemic.

Some of the victims were prostitutes and most had traces of cocaine in their systems, authorities said.

Executions in California are on hold due to pending litigation over lethal injections.

The state has more than 740 inmates on death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.