A Richmond man who recommended to his jury they flip a coin to determine his fate was sentenced to death Tuesday for killing his former girlfriend and another man at the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge toll plaza in 2009.

Nathan Burris, 49, who is representing himself in Contra Costa County Superior Court, took the stand during the penalty phase of his capital murder trial and once again admitted to killing Deborah Ross, 51, of Richmond and 58-year-old Ersie "Chuckie" Everette of San Leandro.

He then told them that they should just flip a coin to determine if he should die by lethal injection.

The jury had already convicted him on two murder counts with special circumstances in the fatal shooting of Ross and Everette on Aug. 11, 2009.

In his closing argument, Chief Assistant District Attorney Harold Jewett described Burris as a "psychopathic killer" and a sociopath who is devoid of a conscience.

Burris testified that his anger and hatred for Ross and Everette, the man Burris believed she was dating, spurred him to go to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge toll plaza where Ross was working as a toll-taker during rush hour.

There, he shot and killed Everette as he sat in a pickup truck parked at the toll plaza and then ran over to the tollbooth where Ross worked and opened fire on her.

Throughout his trial he often told jurors that it was all the same to him whether he was sentenced to death or to life imprisonment.

"I'm walking the plank, and it's my plank to walk," he said from the witness stand.

Burris, who has called California capital punishment laws "a joke," said that he didn't fear getting the death penalty.

"If I was in Texas, I'd be terrified," he said, laughing. "The death penalty means nothing to me but time to hang out and do whatever I'm going to do." "If it was up to me, and you asked me what I'd prefer -- I'd say the death penalty...the main reason is because I deserve it," he said.