Former police officer Joseph DeAngelo, 74, was sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of release on Friday for 13 counts of first-degree murder and 13 of kidnapping-related charges. “The defendant does not deserve mercy,” Judge Michael Bowman said after delivering the verdict, which is the maximum allowed and also includes another life sentence and eight years. The verdict comes after a week of harrowing statements from survivors and families of victims.
“I have listened to all your statements. Each of them,” DeAngelo said before sentencing. “And I’m so sorry everyone’s hurting. Thank you, your honor.”
The condemnation took place at Sacramento State University, where spectators were divided according to Covid-19 guidelines for prevention; DeAngelo heard the conviction masked, as did the rest of the courtroom. A temperature control was also administered to all present.
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DeAngelo pleaded guilty to all crimes attributed to the serial killer / rapist known as the Golden State Killer in June in an attempt to prevent the death penalty; he has also allowed dozens of rapes of which he cannot be accused due to the statute of limitations. DeAngelo’s crimes were committed in the 1970s and 1980s in six California counties, all of which District Attorneys sued before being convicted.
“Over four decades, that’s long to wait for justice to be served,” Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton said in her statement. “Finally we arrived on that day.” They then lamented the courage of DeAngelo victims, who came forward this past week to tell the court about the “trauma” and “pain” he caused. They also praised retired detective Paul Holes, who had been on the trail of the GSK since the 1990s until his arrest. Ventura District Attorney Gregory D. Totten and Tulare County DA Tim Ward also spoke with the bravery of the survivors, while Santa Barbra District Attorney Joyce Dudley pleaded with the family and friends of victims to remember how their loved ones lived – not just how she died.
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Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer took the pop stage to deliver a darker message, telling the cast: “While he was destroying your life, he had to be on his boat, blow out birthday candles, hold his grandson … but in the back of his mind he knew, he knew we were coming for him. “DeAngelo called him a” devil “, he added” you made it personal and it was personal to me. I believe this person honestly, this beast deserves the ultimate punishment of ‘ and death. “
Anne Marie Schubert, DA of Sacramento, counted the thousands of days since DeAngelo’s crime game began – and how Sacramento citizens who were alive during his reign are still just that: horrible. At the end of her statement, she turned directly to DeAngelo, telling him that neither she nor anyone else related to the case would allow him to seek better treatment in prison – to annoy the Department of Corrections for thinking that he is a bad old man. The statement was met with applause as the recent displays of the man of old age were hotly contested.
Family members of DeAngelo also submitted written statements to the court. “I feel compelled to write this so that my brother Joe will know that my love for him will never go away,” DeAngelo’s sister said in a statement, blaming her military father and his abuse in part for the crimes of has bridges. She also regretted his victims. DeAngelo’s niece then sued the court in a statement, saying DeAngelo proved to be a stable father figure for her when she abused her own. “I am thankful I had him in my life; I would not be here today,” she wrote. “I personally feel like there is someone in him that I do not know,” wrote another niece. Their names were not given.
The previous week’s statements about victim included a written statement from DeAngelo’s ex-wife, Sharon Huddle. “I will never be the same person,” she wrote (via CCN). “I now live every day with the knowledge of how he attacked and severely injured hundreds of lives of innocent people and murdered 13 innocent people who were loved and are now missing for 40 years or more.”
The daughter of a victim told the court, “Monsters were real. The boogeyman had broken into my house”, while a victim who was raped by DeAngelo at the age of 15 said: “Finally the end of this trauma is here .. “He’s a terrible man. And now none of us need worry about him anymore” (via the Washington Post).
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DeAngelo was arrested in April 2018 on the strength of DNA evidence found with databases set up for genealogical research. The GSK was also suspected of the East Area Rapist, the Original Night Stalker and the Visalia Ransacker. He was charged with at least 12 murders, 50 rapes and 100 burglaries in California between 1974 and 1986. A former police officer, DeAngelo, was fired in 1979 for stealing dog force and a hammer – an unholy indication of his many crimes.
DeAngelo’s conviction follows closely on the heels of the premiere of an HBO documentary center on DeAngelo and its victims: “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, ” a six-part series based on late crime writer Michelle McNamara’s 2018 book of the same name. McNamara coined the name “the Golden State Killer” and spent years trying to track him down, but died in 2016 before she could finish her book – if the identity of the serial killer could be found out. The book, completed by friends and family, came out in 2018, just a few months before DeAngelo was arrested.
