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Court says Medford man will die for killing tourists The Associated Press SALEM -- The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the death sentence against the alleged trigger man in the 1988 shotgun slayings of two German tourists. David Simonsen of Medford had twice before been sentenced to die for killing the two women at a remote spot near Bandon, but twice the sentences were reversed on appeal. On Thursday, however, the state's highest court turned aside Simonsen's arguments in the latest case and sentenced him to die by lethal injection. Simonsen's partner in the slayings, Jeffrey Ray Williams of Ashland, also is awaiting execution at the Oregon State Penitentiary. According to trial testimony, Simonsen and Williams picked up the two women hitchhiking on U.S. Highway 101 near the California state line and drove them to a remote spot outside Bandon. There, Williams handed a shotgun to Simonsen and told him to kill the women. Simonsen shot them in the face. The victims, Unna Tuxen, 24, of Osnabruck, and Kathrine Reith, 22, of Wattenscheid, were on vacation from the university in Marburg, Germany. In upholding Simonsen's death sentence, the court rejected various arguments, including one that the prosecutor's closing arguments to the jury were so inflammatory that a mistrial should have been declared. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA