Ashton Kutcher

THE actor got caught up in a horrifying real-life crime when the girl he was dating was brutally slayed on the night they were supposed to go out for drinks. And the star later took the stand to give evidence at the murder trial of Michael Gargiulo. Kutcher was just 23 when he first met fashion student Ashley Ellerin in 2000.

A few weeks later, the pair had a date and he rang to apologise for running late.

After turning up at her house, he knocked on the door and got no answer.

He would later tell the court he had peered through the window, seen what he thought was red wine stains on the floor and left thinking Ashley, 22, had ditched him and gone out.

She had actually been stabbed to death in her bathroom. Gargiulo was arrested in 2008 and charged with Ashley’s murder as well two other kiilings. The case went to trial in 2019 and Gargiulo, 44, was convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder, with the jury recommending the death penalty. He is due to be sentenced next month.