The accused Golden State killer is expected to enter to plead to avoid the death penalty

06/29/2020 USA


It was known by many names. After committing dozens of robberies like Visalia Ransacker, DeAngelo’s crimes became more violent in 1975, with the murder of Claude Snelling, prosecutors allege.

DeAngelo appeared before Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman in the Union Hall of Sacramento State University, a venue chosen to allow for social distancing. DeAngelo, in a prison suit, and his defense team wore clear plastic face shields as they sat on a dais to Bowman’s left.

The supplication

He agreed to plead guilty to all charges, including 13 counts of first-degree murder, to avoid the death penalty, Sacramento County Deputy District Attorney Amy Holliday. As for other unaccused crimes in seven counties, DeAngelo will say, “I admit all the unaccused crimes that have been alleged,” in exchange for those counties not charging him.

He will serve 11 consecutive terms of life without parole, with 15 concurrent life sentences and additional time on gun charges, Holliday said. She will give up her appeal rights, she said. The appeal benefits the public for multiple reasons, including the time elapsed since the crime and the possibility of bringing older witnesses to testify during a pandemic.

DeAngelo confirmed to Bowman that he understood the appeal, and confirmed that he is making the appeal of his own free will.

In 2018, prosecutors in Sacramento, Contra Costa, Orange, Santa Barbara, Tulare, and Ventura counties filed 26 charges against DeAngelo and consolidated the cases against him.

Prosecutors said they will hold a press conference Monday at 3 p.m. (6 p.m. ET) in the Sacramento state ballroom.

The suspect

In 1973, DeAngelo began working as a police officer in Auburn, just outside of Sacramento, and then in Exeter, an hour southeast of Fresno. The Vietnam War veteran spent six years with the police before being fired for stealing a dog repellent and a hammer from a pharmacy.

He later worked as a mechanic in Roseville, near Sacramento, retiring in 2017. When he was arrested in April 2018, he was in Citrus Heights, the neighborhood where the Golden State Killer raped the first of his known victims in 1976.

DeAngelo’s longtime neighbors thought it was strange and lonely, they said. He yelled at passersby getting too close to his yard or at people mowing the lawn too early in the morning, but there was no sign that he was a serial killer, they said.
The researchers identified him using a novel research technique known as genetic genealogy that combines DNA analysis with genealogical research.
The DNA from the crime scene matched the genetic material of one of DeAngelo’s relatives, who registered with a genealogy site, prosecutors said.

Break the case

While investigators did not immediately link DeAngelo’s crimes, patterns began to emerge. For one thing, if he broke into a couple’s house, he would usually tie the man down, put dishes on their backs, and threaten to kill both victims if he heard the dishes fall while raping the woman.

“Over the years, we’ve heard about homicides in Southern California, and we thought he was the rapist for the eastern area,” said Larry Crompton, a retired detective with the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department. “But he didn’t leave fingerprints, so we couldn’t show, other than his (modus operandi), that he was the same person. We didn’t know anything about DNA.”

Investigators in 2001 were able to link the crimes of the East Area rapist and the original night stalker through DNA testing.

Seventeen years later, using DNA from the crime scene, they created a profile in a genealogy database called GEDMatch, and DeAngelo’s name appeared on a list of possible suspects.
They then gathered DeAngelo’s DNA into a car door handle and a tissue in his trash can, which matched the DNA from the crime scenes.

CNN’s Eric Levenson, Cheri Mossburg and Breeanna Hare contributed to this report.

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