Golden State Killer suspect ordered to give up more DNA

As Joseph James DeAngelo stood silently in a downtown Sacramento courtroom Thursday — sometimes appearing to nod off to sleep on his feet — a judge gave prosecutors permission to obtain four new DNA samples from the 74-year-old former police officer suspected of being the Golden State Killer and East Area Rapist.

DeAngelo, whose physical appearance has changed markedly since his April 2018 arrest, appeared frail, pale, gaunt and barely attuned to the events transpiring around him during a 50minute hearing in Sacramento Superior Court.

Judge Steve White gave prosecutors permission to swab the suspect’s cheek for additional DNA evidence to be used in crimes in Ventura, Santa Barbara, Orange and Contra Costa counties, but he rejected, for now, a request that a fifth sample be taken to be given to prosecutors in Sacramento, where his trial on 13 murder and 13 rape-related charges is expected to be held.

“I am ordering that buccal swab samples be taken from the defendant,” White said. “They will not be done forcibly. ... It won’t be in open court.”

Prosecutors said they needed the DNA for investigators in the four counties to compare it to crime scene evidence, but DeAngelo’s defense attorneys had objected, saying he already had given up a DNA sample after his arrest.

Prosecutors countered that the first sample taken in 2018 had been partially used and split to be analyzed in Sacramento and another county.

Ventura County Deputy District Attorney Cheryl Temple argued that taking a scraping from inside his cheek was hardly an imposition.

“It is a minor intrusive procedure, unlike so many of the crimes he committed against our victims,” she said, adding that evidence “connects him to hundreds of felonies” in 13 counties.

The evidence is being gathered for a preliminary hearing set for May 12, but whether the hearing starts then — and what kind of shape DeAngelo may be in — is still not certain.

Inside a courtroom cell Thursday, DeAngelo stood silently with his wrists shackled to his waist and two deputies standing on each side of him. He frequently appeared to be falling asleep, with deputies looking as though they were gently nudging his elbow to wake him up at times.