Golden State Killer suspect agrees to guilty plea to avoid death penalty
The former police officer accused of terrorizing California during a series of rapes and killings nearly a half-century ago attributed to the Golden State Killer is expected to plead guilty this month in a deal that will spare him the death penalty, according to multiple sources.
Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., 74, is set to enter a guilty plea to 13 murders and kidnapping charges from as many rapes in a yet-to-be determined Sacramento County courtroom on June 29. The crimes occurred during the 1970s and ‘80s.
Many sources who were notified about the legal arrangement spoke on condition of anonymity because they were asked to not disclose the deal to the media. Nor are any legal motions outlining the plea deal required to be filed in court before June 29.
Sources said DeAngelo has also agreed to admit to scores of crimes for which he is not charged, including rapes, for which the statute of limitations has expired.
The agreement is a significant development in a criminal saga that could have lasted years longer if it had gone to trial but will now lack a public accounting of the evidence collected — and the missteps committed — by detectives over the course of the investigation.
“It’s a step forward ... but it’s not what I was hoping for,” said Kris Pedretti, one of the earliest victims, who was 15 when she was raped in 1976.
There are no criminal charges in connection with her attack, but Pedretti said she understands that DeAngelo is prepared to admit to her rape.
“I already know he raped me, that he was guilty,” she said, “but my deeper feeling is, ‘Why?’ What is so important that he does not want shown in trial that he is willing to do this? ... What is it that he doesn’t want to be known?”
Prosecutors had previously rebuffed DeAngelo’s offer to plead guilty in exchange for life in prison. The COVID-19 pandemic played a role in persuading prosecutors to now agree, according to two of the sources.
Most witnesses and victims in the case are elderly, and some of them are grappling with health problems. The logistics of how to arrange for their testimony, and provide defense lawyers with the ability to cross-examine those witnesses without exposing them to the coronavirus, were problematic, said one of the sources familiar with the decision.
District attorneys from the six counties prosecuting DeAngelo issued a statement Monday saying they have “a moral and ethical responsibility to consider any offer from the defense, given the massive scope of the case, the advanced age of many of the victims and witnesses, and our inherent obligations to the victims.”
The statement did not address whether a settlement agreement had been reached and said prosecutors would have no additional comment until the June 29 court hearing.
Victims of some of the crimes in the case voiced both relief and pain at the outcome.
“It’s pragmatic. This makes sense. It is efficient. It is cost-effective. It is ultimately where we were going to end,” said Jennifer Carole, whose father, Lyman Smith, was among those killed.
But Carole has been in tears since learning there will be no chance to see DeAngelo face evidence against him in court. “So what is justice for that? I’m sitting with that (question) every damn day,” she said.
Others said they saw no realistic away around a compromise.
Ron Harrington, whose youngest brother, Keith, was bludgeoned to death alongside his wife, Patrice, in Dana Point in 1980, said the “Golden State Killer should be and will always be the poster child for the death penalty.”
Still, he said he understood why prosecutors had agreed to a deal that would spare DeAngelo the possibility of execution but keep him in prison for the rest of his life.
“Both my brother and I are very, very supportive of life without parole,” he said.
Harrington and his family have spent decades advocating for the death penalty and expansion of databases containing the DNA of criminals. With that came continued pain, he said.
The plea deal, Harrington
said, “will give us as much closure as we can achieve.”
Victor Hayes expressed frustration bordering on anger.
“I’m grateful he’s been caught, but the fact of the matter is he’s already lived a full life,” said Hayes, who was 21 when he and his 17year-old girlfriend were attacked while in bed one night in September 1977 in a suburb east of Sacramento.
A masked intruder bound and threatened to kill Hayes, then pulled his girlfriend into another room and raped her multiple times before fleeing.
At the time, DeAngelo was working full time as a police officer for the Northern California foothill town of Auburn, about half an hour away.
Auburn fired DeAngelo in 1979 after he was caught shoplifting a hammer and dog repellent from a hardware store. Months later, the Golden State Killer began a series of killings in Southern California.