SANTA ANA (CNS) - The Golden State Killer went before a judge today to admit his guilt in a string of murders, rapes and other crimes in the 1970s and 1980s, stretching from Sacramento County to Orange County, after reaching a plea deal to avoid the death penalty.
Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., 74, this morning began the process of admitting guilt in 13 murders, including four in Orange County, in a hearing before a Sacramento judge that was livestreamed on YouTube. By the noon lunch break, he was about halfway through entering his pleas, speaking in a raspy, trembling voice just above a whisper.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer was in Sacramento to take the plea for the Orange County cases this afternoon.
Under the plea deal, the onetime Exeter and Auburn police officer is expected to be sentenced to at least 11 consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole and 15 concurrent life sentences.
Various prosecutors from across the state began the process of reading detailed descriptions of the defendant's crimes, starting with the murder of 45-year-old Claude Snelling on Sept. 11, 1975, in Visalia. DeAngelo shot and killed Snelling as he attempted to rescue his daughter, who the killer was trying to kidnap.
DeAngelo also pleaded guilty to attempting to kill Detective William McGowen on Dec. 10, 1975, as the then-Visalia officer attempted to arrest him for a series of burglaries attributed to the “Visalia Ransacker'' from April 1974 through December 1975.
DeAngelo pleaded guilty to the beating deaths of Goleta residents Debra Manning, 35, and Robert Offerman, 44, on Dec. 30, 1979, in their home in Santa Barbara County, and the beating deaths of Gregory Sanchez, 27, and Cheri Domingo, 35, both of Goleta, on July 27, 1981. DeAngelo also raped Manning and Domingo.
DeAngelo also pleaded guilty to bludgeoning to death Charlene and Lyman Smith, both of Ventura, with a fireplace log on March 13, 1980. Lyman Smith, a 43-year-old former deputy district attorney, and his 33-year-old wife were found dead by his 12-year-old son. The killer also raped Charlene Smith and stole some of her jewelry, prosecutors said.
Ron Harrington, the son of Dana Point residents Keith and Patrice Harrington, who were slain on Aug. 21, 1980, said he and his family still support the death penalty for DeAngelo, but believe the plea deal is the best former of justice they could get.
“This is the most amount of justice and most amount of closure we could ever obtain,'' Harrington told City News Service. “This guy is absolutely the worst of the worst... He is truly the poster child for the death penalty.''
But given the age of witnesses and investigators as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, it made the logistics of scheduling of even a preliminary hearing difficult to accomplish, Harrington said. Also, Harrington noted, Gov. Gavin Newsom has put a moratorium on the death penalty in the state.
“The preliminary hearing in this case had 100 witnesses and the preliminary hearing was going to last literally months,'' Harrington said. “And beyond that issue we're also dealing with COVID-19. And how do you protect all these remaining victims and witnesses in the era of the coronavirus?''
Harrington said it was a “totally surreal experience'' hearing DeAngelo admit his crimes.
DeAngelo is expected to be ordered back to court in August, when victim impact statements will begin.
Prosecutors on the case announced in April 2019 they would seek the death penalty for the Citrus Heights resident, who is charged with 13 murders.
Multiple issues cropped up in the case, with many witnesses dying, a source told CNS.
“Some key witnesses are 80 years old or above,'' the source said, adding that includes many detectives who worked on the killings.
Support in recent weeks among the families of the victims has been “overwhelming'' for a plea deal, the source said.
In Orange County, DeAngelo is accused of killing 24-year-old Keith and 28-year-old Patrice Harrington on Aug. 19, 1980, in Dana Point; 28-year-old Manuela Witthuhn in Irvine in February 1981; and 18-year-old Janelle Cruz in Irvine in May 1986.
The Harringtons, who lived in a single-story home in the gated Niguel Shores community, were attacked in their bedroom, said Investigator Larry Pool of the Golden State Killer task force. Their bodies were found on their blood-spattered bed with ligature marks on their wrists and Patrice's ankles, Pool wrote in a probable cause declaration.
Their killer left the binds on the bed. It appears he tied their hands behind their backs, covered them in a comforter and slammed a blunt object over their heads, Pool said.
Investigators in 1996 matched semen at the crime scene to the killer in the two other Orange County cases, Pool said. The identity of the killer remained unknown until 2018, when investigators used a public genealogy database with DNA recovered from an item discarded by DeAngelo, former Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas previously said.
Witthuhn was attacked sometime between 11 p.m. on Feb. 5, 1981, and 2 a.m. on Feb. 6, 1981, when investigators believe she died, Pool said. The cause of death was skull fractures from a beating, Pool said, adding that her parents discovered her body in a sleeping bag when they went to check on her. There was no evidence of a struggle and she had ligature marks on her wrists and on her right ankle.
Cruz was killed about 5 p.m. on May 5, 1986, in her bed in her Irvine home. Blood covered her head and neck and she was partially covered by her blanket, Pool said. She had hemorrhaging in her eyes and bruises on the bridge of her nose, according to Pool, who said the killer knocked out three of her teeth -- with two found in her hair.
She had no ligature marks on her wrists like the other victims, but there were abrasions, leading investigators to speculate her killer squeezed her wrists so hard he left a mark, Pool said. Her lower lip was swollen, her tongue bitten. An ultraviolet light spotlighted semen on the victim, according to Pool. No murder weapon was found, but a pipe wrench in the backyard was missing.
The cause of death was “crushing skull fractures,'' he said.
DeAngelo is also charged with killing Brian and Katie Maggiore in Rancho Cordova on Feb. 2, 1978, and is alleged to be the East Area Rapist responsible for 52 attacks in Contra Costa, Sacramento and Santa Clara counties from June 1976 through July 1979, Pool said.
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