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Golden State Killer agrees to plea deal for 13 murders, numerous rapes

by in News

A plea deal for the accused Golden State Killer, requiring he admit to a series of rapes and murders that terrorized residents across California in the 1970s and 1980s, brings justice to those who have waited decades for one of the state’s most notorious killers to be sentenced, a prosecutor told a judge on Monday.

Joseph DeAngelo, a former police officer who was arrested in 2018 after authorities identified him through DNA, appeared before his surviving victims and the relatives of those he is accused of killing in order to accept a plea deal that spares him the death penalty but will almost certainly leave him behind bars for the rest of his life.

During the hearing, Sacramento County Deputy District Attorney Thien Ho described DeAngelo’s crime spree as “simply staggering. … Each time he escaped, slipping away silently into the night, leaving communities terrified for years. …

“Pain followed wherever he went.”

The prosecutors also revealed for the first time an apparent partial confession DeAngelo made following his arrest.

Sitting alone in an interview room, DeAngelo began talking to himself, according to Ho, saying: “I did all that. … I didn’t have the strength to push him out. He made me. He went with me. It was like, in my head, I mean, he’s a part of me.

“I didn’t want to do those things. I pushed Jerry out and had a happy life. I did all those things; I’ve destroyed their lives. … I raped. So now I’ve gotta pay the price.”

  • Joseph James DeAngelo, charged with being the Golden State Killer, is wheeled into the courtroom in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, June 29, 2020. DeAngelo, 74, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of murder and other charges 40 years after a sadistic series of assaults and slayings in California. Due to the large numbers of people attending, the hearing was held at a ballroom at California State University, Sacramento to allow for social distancing. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

  • Keith and Patty Harrington, a newlywed couple who lived in Dana Point in 1980, are believed to be victims of Joseph DeAngelo, the Golden State Killer.(Courtesy of the Harrington family)

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  • Janelle Cruz was raped and bludgeoned to death in Irvine in 1987. She is believed to be a victim of Joseph DeAngelo, the Golden State Killer.

  • Manuela Witthuhn, 28, was bound, raped and bludgeoned to death in the bedroom of a single-story house on Columbus in Irvine. She was alone. Her husband, David, was being hospitalized for a viral infection. DNA taken at the scene was linked to the “East Area Rapist”. (File photo)

  • On April 25, 2018, Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones talks with media after the press conference announcing the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo as the “Golden State Killer” outside the Sacramento District Attorney’s office in Sacramento, CA. District attorneys from counties across the Bay Area joined the FBI and crime investigators in a press conference announcing the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo, 72. (File: Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group)

  • In this April 27, 2018, file photo, Joseph James DeAngelo, accompanied by Sacramento County Public Defender Diane Howard, right, makes his first appearance to face charges that include homicide and rape, in Sacramento County Superior Court in Sacramento, Calif. Prosecutors have filed four additional murder charges against the former police officer who authorities suspect is the Golden State Killer. Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley announced the charges Thursday, May 10, 2018, against DeAngelo. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

  • On April 25, 2018, Bruce Harrington, whose brother and sister-in-law were allegedly killed by the “Golden State Killer”, speaks at the press conference outside the Sacramento District Attorney’s office in Sacramento, CA. District Attorneys from counties across the Bay Area join the FBI and crime investigators in a press conference announcing the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, believed to be the “Golden State Killer”. (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group)

  • On March 12, 2020, Joseph James DeAngelo, charged with being the Golden State Killer, appears in Sacramento County Superior Court in Sacramento, CA. Superior Court Judge Steve White approved prosecutors’ request to take more DNA samples from DeAngelo, over the objections of his defense attorneys. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

  • Ron Harrington, the brother of a victim of the Golden State Killer, shows his angry at California Governor Gavin Newsom as Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer looks on during the Orange County Victim’s Rally in Santa Ana, CA, on Monday, April 8, 2019. Harrington was upset by Newsom’s decision to put a moratorium on carrying out the death penalty on 737 people currently on Death Row. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Joseph James DeAngelo. (Photo courtesy Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department)

  • Law enforcement released drawings of a suspected serial killer, known as the Golden State killer, believed to have committed at least 12 murders across California in the 1970’s and 1980’s. (Courtesy of FBI)

  • Joseph James DeAngelo, center, charged with being the Golden State Killer, his helped up by his attorney, Diane Howard, as Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman enters the courtroom in Sacramento, Calif. Monday June 29, 2020. DeAngelo, 74, is expected to plead guilty 40 years after a sadistic series of assaults and slayings in California. Due to the large numbers of people attending, the hearing was held at a ballroom at California State University, Sacramento to allow for social distancing. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

  • In this April 27, 2018, file photo, Joseph James DeAngelo makes his first appearance to face charges that include homicide and rape in Sacramento County Superior Court. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

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A frail-looking DeAngelo, who arrived in court in a wheelchair, struggled to rise when Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael G. Bowman entered the courtroom.

He sat with his head listing to the side, his mouth open, for much of the hearing, answering simply “yes” or “no” when questioned by the judge.

Sacramento County Deputy District Attorney Amy Holliday noted that the crimes are all more than 30 years old, and that many victims, witnesses and law enforcement officials involved in the investigation have died, with some of those who remain in their 80s and 90s.

She told the judge that the plea deal will allow them to hear DeAngelo admit to committing the crimes and to be present for the sentencing.

“The time for justice stands before us now,” Holliday said.

Under the plea deal, DeAngelo is expected to be sentenced to 11 consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole. DeAngelo confirmed to the judge that he understood, and agreed, to the plea deal.

By mid-morning, the prosecutors had begun reading the details of the specific crimes, followed by DeAngelo individually pleading guilty to each count.

The Golden State Killer – also known as the Original Night Stalker and the East Area Rapist – is suspected of carrying out a dozen-year crime wave beginning in 1974 that included killing at least 13 people and raping more than 50 victims.

He is believed to have begun the increasingly violent crimes in the Sacramento area before moving to the Central Valley, the Bay Area and, finally, to Southern California.

He would be pleading guilty, essentially, to being one of the most prolific serial killers in California history, though the sheer geographic spread of his alleged slayings meant that they wouldn’t be tied together until 2001.

He is also suspected in hundreds of sexually motivated burglaries, prowling events and hang up/lewd phone calls throughout California in the 1970s and ’80s.

His crimes began in Tulare County, in the mid-1970s, and included more than 100 burglaries and the Sept. 11, 1975 killing of Sequoias journalism professor Claude Snelling in Visalia.

He was nearly arrested after police caught him in the act of one home invasion, but he pulled a revolver and fired at a policeman while making his escape.

In the late 1970s, he moved to Sacramento and continued his crime spree. In 1979, he murdered Brian and Katie Maggiore, shot while walking their dog in Rancho Cordova.

He then moved to the Bay Area, where he committed 11 break-ins and sexual assaults, in Concord, Walnut Creek, Danville, San Ramon, Fremont and San Jose before relocating to Southern California.

The Orange County killings began in August 1980, with the slaying of Keith and Patty Harrington, a newlywed couple who lived in Dana Point. The killer entered the couple’s unlocked home, tied them up, raped Patty, then covered the two with bedding and bludgeoned them to death.

In 1981, a killer broke into the Irvine home of Manuela Witthuhn while her husband was hospitalized with an illness. Investigators came to believe, they said, that the killer meant to target the couple and was surprised to find Witthuhn home alone, but killed her anyway.

In 1987, the same killer is suspected of attacking Janelle Cruz, alone at her parents’ Irvine home while they were on vacation, raping her and bludgeoning her to death. Investigators said they believe he attacked her shortly after her boyfriend left.

DNA tied the Orange County slayings to one assailant, then eventually to the other killings and rapes across the state.

For decades, the killer eluded authorities. Larry Pool, a former Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigator, later said he had a database of potential suspects that grew to more than 8,000 people.

Not included in that database was the balding, jowly, 72-year-old ex-cop who had spent years living in a one-story stucco house with a three-car garage in a quiet Sacramento suburb. A Navy veteran who served in Vietnam and as a police officer in Exeter and Auburn before being fired for shoplifting a hammer and dog repellent, DeAngelo hadn’t raised a hint of suspicion.

It was a DNA match from an online geneological website, compared to DNA found at a crime scene, that would land DeAngelo on the radar of investigators. Authorities, working undercover, trailed DeAngelo to a Hobby Lobby and got hold of a piece of trash he threw into a garbage bin to obtain his DNA.

Before the plea deal, DeAngelo’s trial was shaping up to be a massive endeavor, with input from prosecutors across the state who had indicated they would seek the death penalty. Though Gov. Gavin Newsom has placed a moratorium on executions while he is in office, the death penalty still remains legal in California.

This is a developing story. Check back here for coverage of the court proceedings.