Families Confront Golden State Killer For OC Murders

DANA POINT, CA — For the third day, family members of the Golden State Killer's murder victims spoke out on the chaos he unleashed upon their lives 40 years ago. The victim impact statements, which began on Tuesday, concluding Thursday in advance of the formal sentencing of Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., 74. He is expected to be given life in prison without parole.

DeAngelo, a former police officer from Exeter, Calif., is known by many names: Visalia Ransacker, East Area Rapist, Original Night Stalker, and Golden State Killer. His final moniker shows his escalation from a serial rapist, a man who thrived on fear and stole mementos from his victims to a serial killer, who brutally murdered 13 souls from the Central Valley to Orange County.

Many of his rapes were not chargeable, due to the statute of limitations on such crimes. There is no such statute on murder.

Each day, Joseph DeAngelo arrives in the courtroom wearing his orange prisoner jumpsuit and white mask to guard against coronavirus. He is gaunter now than he was at the time of his arrest in 2018. His vacant eyes and infirm demeanor suggest the stories from rape victims and their families blow by him like a breeze. Tales of murder, and the lives he changed forever, even more so.

Several speakers compare DeAngelo to a virus, one whose cure can only be found in the vault of prison. Or better yet, when he takes his last breath, one speaker said.

During the testimony, DeAngelo sits between his lawyers. The police remain, at the ready. No one is sure if his infirmity is an act or real. He went from a man living alone to a suspect in the worst string of serial killing and rapes that the state has ever seen. He has blamed "Jerry" for his crimes. Few believe that an unseen force compelled him to the heinous acts.

For three days, victims recounted the horror stories of the moment when DeAngelo darkened their doorways, and the days, weeks, and years afterward. Rape victims concluded their statements on Wednesday.

One victim, a mere 13-years-old when DeAngelo raped her over 40 years ago, brought Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman to tears during her testimony.

Read: Golden State Killer Sentencing Hearing Underway, Victims Speak

On Thursday, the families of his 13 murder victims took their chance at the microphone.

DeAngelo admitted his guilt June 29 to the string of murders, rapes, and other crimes in the 1970s and 1980s, stretching from Sacramento County to Orange County, only solved 40 years after the fact through familial DNA. He was arrested at his home, merely a stone's throw from where several of his victims lived.

He pleaded guilty in June to the Orange County murders of 24-year-old Keith and 28- year-old Patrice Harrington on August 19, 1980, in Dana Point; 28-year-old Manuela Witthuhn in Irvine in February 1981; and 18-year-old Janelle Cruz in Irvine in May 1986.

On the day of DeAngelo's plea bargain, Harrington's brother said it was a "totally surreal experience" to hear his sister's killer admit his crimes.
Ron Harrington said he and his family still support DeAngelo's death penalty, but believe the plea deal is the best form of justice they could get.

"This is the most amount of justice and most amount of closure we could ever obtain," he said. "This guy is absolutely the worst of the worst... He is truly the poster child for the death penalty."

According to Investigator Larry Pool of the Golden State Killer task force, the Harringtons, who lived in a single-story home in the gated Niguel Shores community, were attacked in their bedroom. Their bodies were found on their blood-spattered bed with ligature marks on their wrists and Patrice's ankles.

Keith Harrington was a medical student and Patrice, a pediatric trauma nurse. DeAngelo admitted to bludgeoning the couple to death.

"They were newlyweds, having been married only three months," Spitzer said, noting that Keith's father, Roger, found the bodies.

Investigators in 1996 matched semen at the crime scene to the killer in the two other Orange County cases. The killer's identity remained unknown until 2018 when investigators used a public genealogy database with DNA recovered from an item discarded by DeAngelo.

Witthuhn was attacked between 11 p.m. on February 5, 1981, and 2 the following morning. The cause of death was skull fractures from a beating, Pool said, adding that her parents discovered her body in a sleeping bag when they checked on her. There was no evidence of a struggle, and she had ligature marks on her wrists and her right ankle.

Witthuhn's husband, David, had been admitted to an area hospital due to a stomach virus, so she was alone for the night. After visiting him at the hospital, her spouse called her to make sure she arrived home safely.
"That was the last time he spoke with her," Spitzer said as he took DeAngelo's guilty plea on June 29.

Cruz was killed around 5 p.m. on May 5, 1986, in her bed in her Irvine home. Her blanket partially covered her, her head and neck covered in blood.

According to Pool, Cruz had hemorrhaging in her eyes and bruises on the bridge of her nose, who said the killer knocked out three of her teeth — with two found in her hair.

An ultraviolet light spotlighted semen on the victim, according to Pool, who said the cause of death was "crushing skull fractures." No murder weapon was found, but a pipe wrench in the backyard was missing.

Cruz's family had gone on vacation to Mexico, leaving her home alone. One of the victim's male friends visited her because she was afraid to be alone.

"About 11 p.m., prior to his leaving, they heard noises outside the house," Spitzer said. "They attributed the noise to a cat or a washer and dryer."

Spitzer turned to the defendant and said, "You, Mr. DeAngelo, unlawfully entered the Cruz residence... You attacked her, you beat her, and you raped her... You murdered her in the first-degree, bludgeoning her multiple times in her face and head."

In June, Ventura County District Attorney Gregory Totten noted that DeAngelo admitted 161 crimes involving 48 individual victims in 32 crime scenes.

Various prosecutors from across the state read detailed descriptions of DeAngelo's crimes, starting with the murder of 45-year-old Claude Snelling on September 11, 1975, in Visalia. DeAngelo shot and killed Snelling as he attempted to rescue his daughter, who the killer was trying to kidnap.

DeAngelo also pleaded guilty to attempting to kill Detective William McGowen on December 10, 1975, as the then-Visalia officer attempted to arrest him for a series of burglaries attributed to the "Visalia Ransacker" from April 1974 through December 1975.

DeAngelo admitted to the beating deaths of Goleta residents Debra Manning, 35, and Robert Offerman, 44, on December 30, 1979, in their home in Santa Barbara County, and the beating deaths of Gregory Sanchez, 27, and Cheri Domingo, 35, both of Goleta, on July 27, 1981. DeAngelo also raped Manning and Domingo.

DeAngelo also pleaded guilty to bludgeoning to death Charlene and Lyman Smith, both of Ventura, with a fireplace log on March 13, 1980. Lyman Smith, a 43-year-old former deputy district attorney and his 33-year-old wife were found dead by his 12-year-old son. The killer also raped Charlene Smith and stole some of her jewelry, prosecutors said.

He will be sentenced for his crimes on Friday morning.

Read also:
Golden State Killer, Original Nightstalker Caught Decades Later: Cops

Golden State Killer's 'Murder Habit' Unraveled In HBO Miniseries

Golden State Killer Admits to 13 Murders And Rapes

City News Service; Patch Editor Ashley Ludwig contributed to this report. This is a developing report. Please refresh for the latest information.

This article originally appeared on the Laguna Niguel-Dana Point Patch