‘Ripper’ is guilty of two killings

A MAN dubbed the “Hollywood ripper” has been found guilty of the murders of two women, including a student who was due to go out with actor Ashton Kutcher the night of her death.

Michael Gargiulo, 43, was yesterday convicted of two counts of first-degree murder by a Los Angeles jury who deliberated for four days before reaching their verdict.

Prosecutor Dan Akemon had told jurors Gargiulo targeted the women in “frenzied knife attacks,” referring to him as a “stone-cold serial killer”.

Gargiulo’s lawyers said he denied the killings and there was no evidence he was at the scene of the two murders.

They indicated that his dissociative identity disorder could have caused him to go into a “fugue” state during a separate attack on a woman who survived.

The trial will move next week to a second phase to assess if Gargiulo was sane at the time of the killings, before sentencing then takes place.

Gargiulo, a former handyman and himself an aspiring actor, could face the death penalty. He is also awaiting a separate trial for the earlier 1993 killing of a third woman in the state of Illinois.

Actor Kutcher ( pictured) told jurors he had gone to victim Ashley Ellerin’s home in Hollywood in 2001 to pick her up for a date, but had arrived late and no one had answered the door.

He said he had looked through a window and seen what he thought was red wine spilt on the floor before leaving, assuming she had already gone out.

Ms Ellerin, was found dead at her home the next morning by a roommate

Kutcher said he and Ms El- lerin, a 22-year-old fashion de- sign student, were e acquaintances.