Golden State Killer suspect appears gaunt, tired as he is ordered to give up more DNA

As Joseph James DeAngelo stood silently in a downtown Sacramento courtroom Thursday — sometimes appearing to nod off to sleep on his feet — a judge gave prosecutors permission to obtain four new DNA samples from the 74-year-old former police officer suspected of being the Golden State Killer and East Area Rapist.

DeAngelo, whose physical appearance has changed markedly since his April 2018 arrest, appeared frail, pale, gaunt and barely attuned to the events transpiring around him during a 50-minute hearing in Sacramento Superior Court.

Judge Steve White gave prosecutors permission to swab the suspect’s cheek for additional DNA evidence to be used in crimes in Ventura, Santa Barbara, Orange and Contra Costa counties, but he rejected, for now, a request that a fifth sample be taken to be given to prosecutors in Sacramento, where his trial on 13 murder and 13 rape-related charges is expected to be held.

“I am ordering that buccal swab samples be taken from the defendant,” White said. “They will not be done forcibly. ... It won’t be in open court.”

Prosecutors said they needed the DNA for investigators in the four counties to compare it to crime scene evidence, but DeAngelo’s defense attorneys had objected, saying he already had given up a DNA sample after his arrest.

Prosecutors countered that the first sample taken in 2018 had been partially used and split to be analyzed in Sacramento and another county.

Ventura County Deputy District Attorney Cheryl Temple argued that taking a scraping from inside his cheek was hardly an imposition.

“It is a minor intrusive procedure, unlike so many of the crimes he committed against our victims,” she said, adding that evidence “connects him to hundreds of felonies” in 13 counties.

The evidence is being gathered for a preliminary hearing set for May 12, but whether the hearing starts then — and what kind of shape DeAngelo may be in — is still not certain.

Inside a courtroom cell Thursday, DeAngelo stood silently with his wrists shackled to his waist and two deputies standing on each side of him. He frequently appeared to be falling asleep, with deputies looking as though they were gently nudging his elbow to wake him up at times.

His mouth was agape much of the time, or formed an “O” that he breathed through as his public defenders argued passionately that they want to strike a plea bargain with prosecutors to get the death penalty off the table and save the state the cost of years of litigation.

But, they said with six counties banded together to prosecute the crimes jointly they have no idea who to talk to to seek a resolution.

“Who’s in charge,” Sacramento public defender Alice Michel asked? “We want to settle this case. We’ve made this very clear.”

DeAngelo’s attorney have argued that prosecutors from Contra Costa, Orange, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura counties have no legal right to come into Sacramento courts and try their client for crimes he is accused of committing elsewhere.

White is a veteran judge who oversaw the joint Sacramento-Placer case of double cop-killer Luis Bracamontes that ended with a death sentence being handed down in 2018 on the same day prosecutors announced DeAngelo’s arrest.

And he noted that such joint prosecutions have been done before.

“We’ve done it before,” White told Michel. “I’ve done that.”

The judge did not rule on that defense argument, but he signaled that he is not comfortable with the fact that six D.A.’s offices are pooling resources to try DeAngelo while Sacramento’s public defenders have gotten no help — financial, manpower or otherwise — from other counties.

“I think it’s very significant that there are resource issues here ... That should not be that way,” White said. “It’s not right. It’s not appropriate.”

The defense has been fighting against having the preliminary hearing, which may take 10 weeks, begin on May 12. DeAngelo’s lawyers argue they cannot be ready for such a massive case, especially without more help, and said they plan to seek a postponement.

This story was originally published March 12, 2020 at 3:45 PM.