A self-proclaimed serial killer whom prosecutors called a "human monster" has been sentenced to two life terms for murdering two men.

Sean Hanify, 35, was convicted in the July 24, 2000, slaying of Mark Warren Davis, 44, whose body was found on the banks of Cherry Creek with a knife in his neck. Davis' skull also was fractured.

Hanify also was convicted in the August 2002 murder of Edward Brown, 59, his roommate. Brown was tortured, stabbed, eviscerated and his body set on fire after he was clubbed to death with a claw hammer.

Defense attorneys said Hanify suffers from severe mental illnesses.

Hanify told the Rocky Mountain News that he had killed as many as seven men in Denver, California and Utah. Police, however, were unable to link him to the other slayings he claimed to have committed.

Hanify was sentenced Tuesday in Denver District Court.