REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- A San Mateo County Superior Court judge upheld a jury's recommendation Monday morning to sentence 26-year-old Alberto Alvarez to death for killing East Palo Alto police Officer Richard May in 2006.

Jurors in December recommended the death penalty for Alvarez after convicting him Nov. 25 of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of killing a peace officer.

Had Judge Craig Parsons not condemned Alvarez to death, he would have faced life in prison without the chance of parole.

May was killed the afternoon of Jan. 7, 2006, after he had responded to a report of a fight at a taqueria on University Avenue in East Palo Alto.

He'd followed Alvarez from the area of the taqueria and over to nearby Weeks Street, where the two exchanged gunfire until May was on the ground.

Alvarez then fired two additional shots into May, including a fatal shot to the head, which one juror said was "the deciding factor" in recommending the death penalty.

Another juror said she believed Alvarez had shown no remorse throughout the trial, including when he testified that May had shot him first and Alvarez was firing in self-defense.

Convicted killer Scott Peterson was the last person to be sentenced to death in San Mateo County Superior Court after he was found guilty in 2004 of murdering his wife and unborn child.