Golden State Killer Suspect Expected to Plead Guilty and Avoid Death Penalty

[RandySF]

The man accused of committing a series of murders and rapes in California during the 1970s and ’80s — crimes that spawned widespread fear and the sobriquet “Golden State Killer” — is expected to accept a plea deal that would allow him to avoid the death penalty, one victim and close relatives of two other victims said on Monday.

As part of the agreement, the man, Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., is expected to plead guilty later this month to dozens of criminal counts, including murder and kidnapping, that would send him to prison for the rest of his life without the possibility of parole, a victim and victims’ family members said.

They said that prosecutors had briefed them about the likely plea agreement, which still must be approved by a judge.

It was not immediately clear if there was unanimity among the group of prosecutors involved in the case, the victims and their families. The plea agreement was widely reported by the news media in California, where the case has become a phenomenon and inspired an upcoming HBO documentary series. It was the first high-profile case to be cracked with genetic genealogy.



https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/us/golden-state-killer-death-penalty.html

[JonLP24]

1. This is another reason why I'm against the death penalty

If you are a serial killer or have unsolved murders it is easy to avoid the DP if you plead guilty to them.

This is how the Green River Killer avoided the DP.

[greenjar_01]

2. DeAngelo's in his mid-70s and California has a death penalty moratorium

He's pleading to get out of Sac County jail and into some decent senior care state prison.

Your point stands, however, on sweeteners to get him to give up the whole story. That said, I think he'll take the charges they have evidence on and let the rest sit, see how he likes Solano or Cal Med Fac and maybe trade up again.

[PTWB]

3. I listened to a podcast series about this case around a year before they solved it.

I do not throw the word evil around often or lightly, but what this man put his victims through is pure evil.

[betsuni]

4. "I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden Gate Killer"

by Michelle McNamara is very good.

[Awsi Dooger]

5. I agree but don't tell that to most people who followed this case for decades

They have relentless animosity toward Michelle McNamara receiving any credit whatsoever, and likewise any attention toward her husband Patton Oswalt. It is a bitter pathetic crowd. Every time the book or HBO documentary is mentioned they turn out in force online to attack and diminish her, even thought she's been dead for 4 years.

[betsuni]

6. I didn't know that.

Ugh.

[Awsi Dooger]

8. It's really sickening

The book was delayed due to Michelle's sudden unexpected death in 2016. Consequently the book was pieced together and not published until February 2018. Many people became aware of the case for the first time as a result of her well-received high profile book. Then DeAngelo was identified only 2 months later in late April 2018.

That timing is the crux of the matter. People who learned of the case via the book enthusiastically entered the EAR forums and praised the book. They were attacked and ridiculed by the case veterans, almost without exception. I am among the few who take the other side, always sticking up for Michelle. She had a great website "True Crime Diary" and had gained very rare trust among investigators. If Michelle had lived she would not be taking credit. She would be researching books on other cases.

On those forums it is easy to decipher that it is the right wingers who are attacking Michelle and anything associated with her. They always reference "Hollywood" and Patton Oswalt.

[betsuni]

15. By the way, the church my parents dragged me to as a teenager in Tacoma, Washington,

was in the general neighborhood of where serial killer Ted Bundy grew up. At the time I was a little too young to be a potential victim, but I fit the general description of his victims and was terrified. I understand why someone would get obsessed. Michelle definitely wouldn't take credit. These monsters.

[robbob]

7. Why?

What do people have against someone who worked so hard to try and bring the perp to justice?

[Awsi Dooger]

9. I just mentioned reasoning in the post above

It is largely political. If she had not been married to anti-Trump comedian Patton Oswalt, the criticism would not be there, at least not close to the same degree. Michelle also had many political tweets in support of Hillary prior to her death.

You can get a taste of it in this Reddit thread. There have been countless threads like this on various EAR forums for the past 2+ years. I must have posted a dozen times today bucking the anti-McNamara types. But I am swamped by those who take the other side. All they have to do is ridicule Hollywood and Patton Oswalt and the Likes/Thumps Up numbers soar:

https://www.reddit.com/r/EARONS/comments/hhsd0t/my_thoughts_on_tonights_episode_of_ill_be_gone_in/

[obamanut2012]

12. JFC it has nothing to do with politics and Trump

[greenjar_01]

16. I mean!

[Hamlette]

10. nothing she did had anything to do with "solving" the case

I suspect that is the argument. The case was solved through DNA (they got the testing companies to look for a match via their repository of profiles. One of his relatives had done a test through one of those private companies and they searched back through that relatives family tree to find him).

The interesting part of the story, to me, is how she used the internet to research the cases. Some other cases have been solved through these internet sleuths. Her book is good as is Evil Has a Name which is about the same thing but has more info about how they found him. He is expected to plead guilty soon in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table.

[obamanut2012]

11. That is the reason

Paul Holes and a couple other folks helped preserve the DNA, and worked for decades to help the survivor's and the victim's families find justice. MM's book is very good, but it's more of her journey. NOTHING she did helped publicize nor solve this case, and it's a shame her husband immediately co-opted well-deserved praise for Holes, Carole Daily, etal. THEY are way JJD was finally caught, along with the forensic geneologists.

EARS/ON has been one of my "pet" true crime cases for many, many years, and it is very annoying to see Patton Oswalt take credit away from the folks who actually caught JJD. THIS is why folks are annoyed by him, the HBO doc, etc. It is weird people are saying it's because of Patton being anti-TRump.

Again, no one is bitter about MM and her book. JUst that her husband keeps taking the credit away from folks who caught JJD. Again, Michelle had zero to do with EARS/ON being captured.

I am glad he was captured, even after decades of freedom, because the bastard had just retired and was all excited about his fun retirement plans. BOOM!

[greenjar_01]

14. Gotta agree with a lot of this

Not only did she not really have much to do with solving the case, neither did any of the internet sleuths. That's what's rather amazing about it.

[greenjar_01]

13. The only internet sleuths who were even close were those who insisted EARONS was also

the Visalia Ransacker - which Visalia police of course already suspected in the 70s. This point was denied vociferously on the Proboards and reddit for years of course, and even in the HBO show, we hear I think Michelle say "He hadn't yet murdered" in 78 or so when he certainly murdered at least Claude Snelling years earlier (there are others in Visalia/Exeter, as some convincingly argue).

Given the volume of Internet sleuthing, it's actually super weird that Deangelo was on absolutely nobody's radar until the genetic DNA testing. With just a few frequent speculative conjectures, the case could have been solved with open source evidence (i.e., published newspaper stories) alone:

1) EARONS is a Sacramento area native, or grew up there
2) EARONS lived in the Visalia area during the ransacking spree
3) EARONS returned to the Sacramento area before the EAR attacks started in 1976
4) Something changed in EARONS life in mid-to-late 1979
5) Bonnie is real

If you think of the millions of hours people spent tracking down every piece of "evidence" on this case, it's amazing (and actually a massive and humiliating strike against Internet sleuthing) that these five data points didn't turn up Deangelo as a suspect much earlier. Like, nobody checked 5-6 years worth of Sacramento/Rancho Cordova area high school yearbooks against the Visalia/Exeter phonebooks 74-76? The millions of hours spent speculating on cars, notes, hand-drawn maps? It's wild.

I do think the mistake in age (Deangelo was at the very top of the age range most people had) and the "long-hair" sketches really hurt the chase.