DEAD BEFORE THEIR 1ST DATE
Kutcher testifies at H’wood Ripper trial
Ashton Kutcher was “freaking out” when he got the horrifying news his friend Ashley Ellerin was murdered the night they were supposed to go on their first date in 2001, he testified Wednesday.
The actor had been knocking at Ellerin’s door around 10:45 p.m. the prior night and remembered how he “grabbed the doorknob” to lean in and shout her name because she didn’t answer, he told a jury in Los Angeles.
Kutcher said he realized he might be considered a suspect if he didn’t act fast.
“I remember that the next day, after I heard what happened, I went to the detectives,” he testified.
Kutcher was called to the witness stand during the fourth week of suspected serial killer Michael Gargiulo’s murder trial in Los Angeles.
Dubbed “The Hollywood Ripper,” Gargiulo, 43, has been charged with slashing Ellerin’s throat and stabbing her more than 40 times Feb. 21, 2001, before killing second California victim Maria Bruno, 32, in 2005.
Gargiulo was arrested in 2008 after he tried to kill Michelle Murphy, 26, inside her Santa Monica apartment but ended up cutting himself and leaving a trail of his blood.
Investigators later linked his DNA to the unsolved murder of his childhood friend Tricia Pacaccio, 18, in his upscale suburban Chicago hometown in 1993.
Prosecutors theorize Kutcher was knocking on Ellerin’s door shortly after Gargiulo attacked her.
During about 40 minutes of questioning, Kutcher said he had asked Ellerin out for that night and was running late because he also accepted an invitation to watch the Grammy Awards at the home of actress Kristy Swanson.
Dressed in a blue suit and tie Wednesday and sporting a mustache, Kutcher said he called Ellerin at 8:24 p.m. the night she died to tell her he’d be too late for dinner but they still could get a drink.
“She said, ‘That’s fine. I’ll blowdry my hair,’” Kutcher testified.
The actor, who was then working on “That ’70s Show,” said he “lost track of time” and didn’t make it to Ellerin’s until 10:30 or 10:45 p.m.
Kutcher said he tried to call first and likely left one message on Ellerin’s phone and another message on a friend’s phone she had been using because it got better service.
“I was trying to take her on a date and didn’t want to seem overeager. I think I left a message on each one of the phones maybe,” he told jurors.
He recalled arriving at Ellerin’s address about five blocks from his own home and walking up to the door.
“I noticed all the lights were on, so I assumed she was home. I knocked on the door. There was no answer. I knocked again, again no answer. I kind of looked through the window on the front door.”
Kutcher said he started to think maybe Ellerin had lost her patience and decided to go out without him.
“I thought, ‘I’m just going to holler in,’” he said of attempting to open her locked door.
He said he looked in another larger window as he was leaving and noticed something that would later prove significant to prosecutors.
“I wasn’t really trying to be the guy outside looking through someone’s window,” he said, explaining that he only took a quick glance.
“I saw what I thought was red wine spilled on the carpet,” he said. “That also was not that alarming. I had just been to a party at her house a couple weeks ago, but it was like a college party with a lot of people drinking, so I didn’t really think much of it.”
Kutcher said he eventually gave up and left.
“I got in my car, and I went home and figured I kind of screwed up and showed up too late and she had left,” he testified.
Gargiulo, 43, was arrested in 2008 after Murphy fought him off and investigators pieced together his identity.