Courts: Golden State Killer suspect arraigned in Sacramento

SACRAMENTO — The names of 26 victims of a serial rapist and killer known as both the East Area Rapist and Golden State Killer were read in a Sacramento court Thursday as the man accused of committing the crimes stood practically motionless while arraigned on new charges.

Tearful victims including Margaret Wardlow, who was 13 when she was raped in 1977, sat in the court, with a prosecutor handing her a tissue while Judge Michael Sweet of Sacramento County Superior Court read the lengthy list of charges against Joseph James DeAngelo.

“To hear the judge say the victims’ names was really hard,” Wardlow, one of the youngest victims linked to the East Area Rapist, said after the hearing. “It was really hard, more so than I ever thought it would be.”

DeAngelo, 72, is charged with 13 murders, with prosecutors filing 13 new kidnapping charges Tuesday for crimes that included rapes in Sacramento and Contra Costa counties. Those rapes, including Wardlow’s assault, can’t be charged due to the statute of limitations at the time, but for crimes that included kidnapping for robbery there was not the same restriction.

DeAngelo is accused of being a man with many monikers during the 1970s and 1980s, including the Original Night Stalker and Visalia Ransacker, whose reign of terror was pieced together decades later by investigators using DNA and the suspect’s modus operandi to link cases up and down the state. Prosecutors said additional charges still could be filed against DeAngelo, who is next scheduled to appear in court Dec. 6.

Prosecutors in six California counties — Sacramento, Orange, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Contra Costa — announced Tuesday they will jointly prosecute DeAngelo in Sacramento. Prosecutors are asking DeAngelo to prove to the court that he does not have the financial means to afford an attorney. He is now represented by public defender Diane Howard, who declined to comment after the hearing.

“For decades, he evaded justice and devastated communities across California,” Contra Costa District Attorney Diana Becton said on Tuesday. “Thankfully, we can now hold someone accountable for these crimes and seek justice for our victims.”