He later worked as a mechanic in Roseville, near Sacramento, retiring in 2017. The Vietnam War veteran spent six years in law enforcement before he was fired for shoplifting dog repellent and a hammer from a drugstore. In 1973, DeAngelo began working as a police officer in Auburn, outside Sacramento, and then in Exeter, an hour southeast of Fresno. In 2018, prosecutors from Sacramento, Contra Costa, Orange, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura counties filed 26 charges against DeAngelo and consolidated the cases against him.
The plea benefits the public for multiple reasons, including the time that has passed since the crimes and the prospect of bringing elderly witnesses to testify during a pandemic, she said.ĭeAngelo confirmed to Bowman he understood the plea, and confirmed he is making the pleas of his own volition. He will waive his rights to appeal, she said. He likely will serve 11 consecutive terms of life without parole, with 15 concurrent life sentences and additional time for weapons charges, according to Holliday. Headlines attributed the crimes to the East Area Rapist, the Original Night Stalker and, finally, the Golden State Killer.ĭeAngelo agreed to plead guilty to all charges to avoid the death penalty, said Sacramento County Deputy District Attorney Amy Holliday. After committing scores of burglaries as the Visalia Ransacker, DeAngelo's crimes became more violent in 1975, with the slaying of Claude Snelling, prosecutors allege.įor the next 11 years, he terrorized communities from Sacramento to Orange County, prosecutors say. Dressed in a prison jumpsuit and appearing frail, DeAngelo and his defense team wore clear plastic face guards as they sat on a dais to Bowman's left.ĭeAngelo was known by many nicknames. The defendant appeared before Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman at the Sacramento State University Union Ballroom, a venue chosen to allow for social distancing. Prosecutors also described a rape while the victim's young daughter was home. Some rapes took place when the victims' children were home, and in one case, he bound a 3-year-old boy with fabric torn from something in the woman's bedroom. He said, "Guilty," when asked to plea for the murders and "I admit," when asked to acknowledge the rapes and other crimes. He was not charged for the rapes because of California's statue of limitations. "Simply put, they deserve to see the defendant die in prison as a convict, and not simply the accused."ĭeAngelo pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first-degree murder and special circumstances (including murder committed during burglaries and rapes), as well as 13 counts of kidnapping.ĭeAngelo has also been accused of committing more than 50 rapes during his killing spree between 19. They've suffered for far too many years," Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten said. "The (surviving) victims in this case have lived far too long with this trauma. After one double murder in 1979, a prosecutor said, DeAngelo snacked on leftover Christmas turkey from a victim's fridge and left the bones behind.
(CNN) - The former California police officer who prosecutors say murdered 13 people as the Golden State Killer pleaded guilty Monday to numerous crimes in his yearslong rape-and-killing spree.Īs part of the plea deal, prosecutors from the counties where Joseph DeAngelo committed his crimes read the specifics of each offense, laying out horrific details about him binding, robbing, raping, sodomizing, beating and killing various victims.
Joseph James DeAngelo, the former California police officer who prosecutors say killed 13 and raped dozens of victims as the Golden State Killer, is expected to enter a guilty plea Monday.īy Eliott C.
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