Serial killer suspect wants deal

Alleged Golden State Killer wants death off the table

Attorneys for suspected Golden State Killer say he’ll plead guilty if death penalty taken off the table.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Attorneys for the man accused of being the Golden State Killer said Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. would be willing to plead guilty if prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty, according to new court papers.

The statement from the public defenders representing DeAngelo appears as a footnote in a 41-page dismissal motion filed this month in Sacramento County Circuit Court and obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

“Mr. DeAngelo is 74 years old. He has offered to plead to the charges with a lifetime sentence,” the statement says.

Assistant public defender Joe Cress did not respond to a request to clarify the statement. Nor did Sacramento County prosecutor Anne Marie Schubert respond to a request for comment. But victims in the case told The Times they had received a letter from the public defender asking them to tell an independent mediator what they think about resolving the case without trial.

“I would be OK with that,” said Kris Pedretti, who was 15 when she was raped in 1976. “But in exchange we want answers. Where he was. What he was doing. He owes us answers. Real answers.”

A second victim voiced a similar opinion. Victor Hayes, who was held captive and threatened with death while his girlfriend was raped, said he is more interested in knowing details of how the crimes would have been committed by DeAngelo, a patrol duty police officer for the small northern California town of Auburn.

DeAngelo faces charges for 13 murders and 13 raperelated kidnappings in six counties. Beyond that, he is accused of some 50 rapes and scores of ransackings attributed to a serial predator who attacked women, men and children across a large swath of California in the 1970s and 1980s.

He was arrested in April 2018 based on genetic DNA tracing through his relatives. Prosecutors allege that DNA retrieved from DeAngelo the day of his arrest matches that from eight of the crime scenes, but they have so far been stymied in collecting additional DNA samples from DeAngelo so that crime labs in those counties can run their own tests.

DeAngelo’s arrest inspired dozens of other agencies to begin solving violent crimes similarly, fundamentally revolutionizing how cases across the country are investigated. The technique has generated a backlash from some genealogists, legal scholars and privacy advocates who are concerned that the police and the FBI are abusing these databases.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a moratorium on executions in March 2019, but the death penalty remains legal in the state.