The six district attorneys involved in the case gathered in Orange County to announce each of their cases has been refiled into one case.
"It is very fitting that this journey for justice that has been sought for over 40 years ends in Sacramento," said Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert.
The district attorneys also announced the filing of 13 new charges of kidnapping to commit robbery against Joseph DeAngelo. Nine of those charges are from Sacramento County and four are from Contra Costa County.
"We now have the opportunity to have a single comprehensive speedy trial for all victims, and that was an opportunity none of your district attorneys wanted to pass up," said Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley.
The 13 murder charges come from five different counties. Tulare County announced charges earlier this month for the murder of a college professor in 1975. That is, chronologically, the first murder DeAngelo stands accused of in a spree that stopped in Orange County in 1986.
DeAngelo has yet to enter a plea for the murder charges in Sacramento. The district attorneys say the consolidation of this case will help in moving forward a speedy trial.
"We've got witnesses that are older, so we want to move this case at a reasonable pace," said Schubert.
Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas says this may be the largest cooperative prosecution in California history.
"We've had cases where we've had two, maybe even three, jurisdictions trying a case jointly like this, but I believe this is unprecedented," said Rackauckas.
Schubert says DeAngelo will face arraignment on the new charges in Sacramento on Thursday.
"This case changed our community, and it's very difficult to explain to folks what that means if you didn't live through it. It's almost similar to saying I lived through an earthquake and then trying to explain that."