SACRAMENTO – Four decades after he began sneaking into homes, tying up victims, raping women and killing couples, former police officer Joseph DeAngelo pleaded guilty Monday to 26 counts of murder and kidnapping, admitting what forensic science A pioneer had already demonstrated: she was sadistic. Golden State Killer.
His acceptance of a plea agreement saved him from death, an adjournment that the 74-year-old never offered more than a dozen men and women who were shot and beaten to death for 12 years of rape and murder during the 1970s and 80. Prosecutors believe he only stopped when he could no longer beat the victims.
The admission of guilt guarantees that DeAngelo will be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
DeAngelo was charged with 13 counts of murder, with additional special circumstances, as well as 13 counts of kidnapping for robbery in six counties, including Contra Costa. Investigators believe he was responsible for more than 60 violations, including some in Santa Clara and Alameda counties, but the statute of limitations expired on those crimes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlHiJ-bjCLw
Sitting in a wheelchair and wearing an orange jumpsuit and a plastic visor over his face on Monday, DeAngelo was taken to a university ballroom, where officials read detailed reports of each crime. On one side of the room were their victims and their families, and on the other, police officials and prosecutors.
DeAngelo confirmed out loud that he had accepted the plea agreement. By mid-afternoon Monday, prosecutors had read graphic accounts of more than 20 crimes, many with details of a masked DeAngelo threatening to blow up the victims’ brains or pierce their necks with a knife, as well as rummage through their homes before disappear. silent.
Each summary of the crime culminated with the judge asking DeAngelo how the crime was declared.
“Guilty,” DeAngelo said hoarsely.
The judge then asked about specific charges in each crime, such as the use of knives and firearms.
“I admit,” DeAngelo said in response to the allegations.
The 62 crimes without charges, most of them rapes of women and girls, occurred in Sacramento, Yolo, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Alameda, Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties, according to authorities. They expect DeAngelo to admit to those crimes.
Last year, district attorneys for Sacramento, Santa Barbara, Orange, and Ventura counties decided to pursue the death penalty. But with DeAngelo’s advanced age and Governor Gavin Newsom’s executive order stopping executions, it was doubtful that he would ever be killed.
Joseph DeAngelo was brought into the ballroom with a plastic visor over his face. The ballroom is absolutely quiet. # GoldenStateKiller @sfchronicle pic.twitter.com/HB2hdnGyBN
– Matthias Gafni (@mgafni) June 29, 2020
Sitting alone in an interview room after his 2018 arrest, DeAngelo spoke to himself, according to comments released by prosecutors on Monday.
“I did all of that,” he said. “I did all those things. I have destroyed all their lives … I raped. So now I have to pay the price. “
At the time, prosecutors said, “DeAngelo knew he had been caught.”
Monday’s hearing was moved from a Sacramento County Superior Court chamber to a Sacramento State University ballroom to provide space for social distancing with large numbers of victims expected to attend amid the pandemic. of coronavirus.
DeAngelo caused fear in the hearts of residents of Sacramento to Orange County. He would target sleeping couples, break into their suburban homes with a mask, tie up the man, and place dishes on his back as a makeshift alarm. He would threaten to kill the couples before raping the woman. His crimes earned morbid nicknames: Visalia Ransacker, East Area Rapist, and Original Night Stalker.
Over the years, investigators linked some of the Southern California murders to a series of rapes in the Bay Area and Central Valley, and the suspect was named the Golden State Assassin. Authorities now believe he committed crimes in 11 counties from 1974 to 1986.
Two years ago, researchers decided to use a family genealogy website that stored a massive database of genetic profiles of hobby detectives looking for long-lost relatives. They uploaded the Golden State Killer profile to GEDmatch.com and were successful. A distant relative of DeAngelo had uploaded a DNA profile, and the researchers mapped the family trees and slowly narrowed down any possible suspects.
The genetic roadmap finally led to DeAngelo, a grandfather who lives in Citrus Heights, Sacramento County. Police inspected his home in a quiet residential neighborhood and finally confirmed the match by removing DNA from his car door and a tissue in the trash.
The effort not only caught one of California’s most notorious criminals, but also launched a new era of crime resolution where genetic genealogy is used to solve inactive cases. That technique and DeAngelo’s crimes sparked worldwide interest, releasing a best-selling book, a six-part HBO documentary that premiered on Sunday, podcasts, and countless television shows.
Since his arrest, DeAngelo has appeared increasingly frail, has lost weight, and rarely shows any emotion.
DeAngelo was fired from the Auburn Police Department in 1979 after being caught shoplifting. He had previously worked as an officer in Exeter from 1973 to 1976, not far from where Visalia Ransacker robbed more than 100 houses in the Central Valley.
DeAngelo also spoke to himself in 1979, when he was arrested for stealing dog repellent and a hammer.
After trying to escape, the security of the store tied him to a chair. He pretended to have a heart attack and stammered until the sheriff’s deputies arrived and asked to speak to them privately. He told them he was a police officer and that he had only pretended to act crazy to avoid getting into trouble.
Debbi Domingo McMullan, whose mother, Cheri Domingo, was killed by DeAngelo along with her boyfriend Greg Sánchez in 1981, stood with her brother on Monday, wiping away tears as a prosecutor read horrendous details. Her mother was beaten at least 10 times and raped by DeAngelo in Santa Barbara.
On Monday, he finally heard DeAngelo take responsibility and a judge found him guilty.
“It was difficult to remain standing,” said Domingo McMullan during a break.
Jane Carson-Sandler, identified only by prosecutors as Jane Doe 20, said she approached DeAngelo on Monday because she wanted him to look at her when he admitted his guilt. Although he didn’t look at her, Carson-Sandler said it had been an “extremely emotional day.”
“Look what he has done to some of these other women,” said Carson-Sandler. “It is heartbreaking to hear about what they have been through and what we are still going through. Admitting your guilt is one thing, but this will never end for us. We will never really have a closure. “
“Our wounds heal, but our scars remain,” he said.
Matthias Gafni and Alejandro Serrano are staff writers for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected], [email protected] Twitter: @mgafni, @serrano_alej
