Confessed Golden State Killer Joseph DeAngelo set to face his victims, life sentence
Judgment Day for confessed Golden State Killer/East Area Rapist Joseph James DeAngelo begins Tuesday, Aug. 18, with an unusual, weeklong court hearing in which his victims and their families are expected to deliver a series of emotional declarations about how his brutal, 13-year crime spree has upended their lives.
The hearing in Sacramento Superior Court is set to begin in the morning in the downtown courthouse’s largest courtroom with victim impact statements, and Judge Michael Bowman already has said he will place no limits on how long victims are allowed to speak.
The first statements are expected to come from women DeAngelo raped in Sacramento during a reign of terror as the East Area Rapist from 1976 through 1978, and officials plan to allow the victims and their families into court to speak in separate groups.
Victims from rapes he committed in San Joaquin and Contra Costa counties are expected to speak Wednesday, with Thursday devoted to family members of the 13 people he murdered between 1975 and 1986 from Southern California to Sacramento.
Those hearings from Department 24 of the court will be live streamed via YouTube; a shortcut link is bit.ly/sac-courts-dept-24.
Then, the hearing is expected to move to a ballroom at California State University, Sacramento, where the 74-year-old former police officer and truck mechanic is scheduled to be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole, part of an agreement between prosecutors and DeAngelo’s public defenders that saved the state the cost of a lengthy trial and spared DeAngelo from facing the death penalty.
DeAngelo, who has been held in the Sacramento County Main Jail since DNA evidence led Sacramento sheriff’s deputies to his Citrus Heights home in April 2018, pleaded guilty June 29 to 13 murder counts and 13 kidnap for robbery counts related to his rapes.
He also admitted to 62 uncharged counts of rape and other crimes during a daylong hearing held in a makeshift courtroom inside the University Union at Sacramento State.
DeAngelo, who has spoken only in a hoarse whisper during court hearings, offered his guilty pleas while sitting in a wheelchair and appearing as a frail, elderly man.
Family members of his victims don’t believe he is infirm, and law enforcement sources say it is an act, that he has worked out regularly inside his jail cell.
Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said after his guilty pleas that his actions just prior to his arrest — when he was seen racing around Sacramento on a motorcycle — are evidence that he was physically and mentally fit.
“The court couldn’t take his plea unless he’s competent to stand trial,” Schubert said, adding that there is evidence of DeAngelo “feigning illness” or “malingering” that goes back years to his 1979 arrest on shoplifting charges.
“If you were to put that evidence before a jury I think you could conclude one thing, and I think those victims know exactly what’s going on in Mr. DeAngelo’s head,” she said.
The court is allowing some members of the public to attend the sessions.
“If you have interest in attending in person, please submit your name and contact information to the Public Information Officer at sscpio@saccourt.ca.gov by noon on Friday, August 14, 2020,” the court said in an announcement Thursday. “If members of the public have already submitted their name for the public lottery, you are not required to resubmit your name.
“Selected attendees will be drawn by lottery and you will be notified by the Public Information Officer.”
The sentencing hearing also will be live-streamed via YouTube on the same page, bit.ly/sac-courts-dept-24.
“All media and members of the public entering the facility will be subject to a no contact temperature screening and required to wear a face covering,” the court said. “Social distancing practices will also be enforced.”
This story was originally published August 6, 2020 at 11:43 AM.