The man who admitted to committing 13 murders and dozens of sexual assaults and burglaries in the 1970s and 1980s was sentenced Friday to multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole and will spend the rest of his life in state prison.
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman sentenced Joseph DeAngelo, 74, after three days of victim impact statements from people personally affected by the horrific crimes of the serial rapist and murderer known as the Golden State Killer.
Those hearings included testimony from friends and family members of the four Santa Barbara County victims killed 40 years ago: Debra “Ali” Manning, Dr. Robert Offerman, Cheri Domingo and Greg Sanchez.
He pleaded guilty on June 29, and as part of the plea bargain, he avoided the death penalty and admitted to the homicides and additional rapes and abduction crimes that were not able to be charged, since the statute of limitations had passed. He also waived his rights to appeal.
Bowman said he approved of the plea, since it gave survivors and loved ones a chance to be heard now.
He also said that accepting the plea does not mean the court doesn’t believe DeAngelo deserves to have the death penalty imposed, but it most likely wouldn’t happen because of DeAngelo’s age and the state’s moratorium on the death penalty.
Bowman sentenced DeAngelo to 11 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, an additional life sentence, plus another eight years, which was the maximum.
“While the court has no power to make a determination in where the defendant is imprisoned, the survivors have spoken clearly — the defendant deserves no mercy,” he said, to applause from people gathered in the courtroom.
If not for the persistence of survivors, families, citizen detectives, law enforcement and others who worked for decades to put the pieces together and identify the man known as the Golden State Killer, DeAngelo “may have escaped earthly justice altogether,” Bowman said.
District attorneys from eight California counties teamed up for the prosecution, and several made statements during the sentencing hearing and afterward in a press conference.
Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley said DeAngelo “is driven to inflict the greatest amount of pain that he possibly can. Therefore, it wasn’t enough for him to rape, beat or shoot the victims. He wanted to take inflicting human pain to the highest level possible; therefore, he often ensured that their loved one saw or heard his victims being tortured or killed. That’s just who Joe DeAngelo is.”
Dudley said DeAngelo wanted to hurt as many people as he could, and that’s what he did.
“The greatest revenge is to live your lives,” Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said. “Know that the monster of your childhood or younger years is gone forever and will die alone in the dark.”
Addressing DeAngelo, she said his name will fade from the headlines, but until he dies, “this team will not just promise but will ensure that you will never succeed at deceiving or manipulating the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation into believing you are some feeble, inept old man who deserves better housing” or treatment, she said.
In a press conference after the sentencing, she called him a sociopath, and presented video clips that prosecutors were not allowed to show in court that showed DeAngelo walking around and cleaning his jail cell, and stepping on and off of his bed.
Schubert, Dudley and other prosecutors believe DeAngelo’s use of a wheelchair in court is an act, and that he is faking his weak physical condition.
“He’s acting feeble. He’s not feeble,” Dudley said after the June 29 plea hearing. “This whole thing is an act, according to the people who deal with him day in and out in the jail.
“I think of the families. … He’s just manipulating just like he did his whole life.”
DeAngelo’s defense attorneys read brief statements from some of his family members, who wrote that they could not reconcile the man they know with the man who committed these horrific crimes. One of his nieces wrote that she will never be the same trusting person after his arrest.
DeAngelo himself stood to give a one-sentence statement to the court, saying: “I’ve listened to all your statements, each of them, and I’m really sorry to everyone I’ve hurt.”
The criminal counts he admitted include 13 murders as well as dozens of sexual assaults and kidnappings with intent to commit robbery, including attacks linked to the so-called East Area Rapist.
His admitted homicides include:
» First-degree murder of Claude Snelling on Sept. 11, 1975, in Tulare County
» First-degree murder of Katie Maggiore on Feb. 2, 1978, in Sacramento County
» First-degree murder of Brian Maggiore on Feb. 2, 1978, in Sacramento County
» First-degree murder of Debra “Ali” Manning on Dec. 30, 1979, in Santa Barbara County, and the special circumstance that the murder was committed in the commission of a rape
» First-degree murder of Robert Offerman on Dec. 30, 1979, in Santa Barbara County
» First-degree murder of Cheri Domingo on July 27, 1981, in Santa Barbara County
» First-degree murder of Greg Sanchez on July 27, 1981, in Santa Barbara County
» First-degree murder of Charlene Smith between March 13 and March 16, 1980, in Ventura County, and the special circumstance that the murder was committed in the commission of a rape
» First-degree murder of Lyman Smith between March 13 and March 16, 1980, in Ventura County
» First-degree murder of Patrice Harrington on Aug. 21, 1980, in Orange County, and the special circumstance that the murder was committed in the commission of a rape
» First-degree murder of Keith Harrington on Aug. 21, 1980, in Orange County
» First-degree murder of Manuela Witthuhn on Feb. 5, 1981, in Orange County, and the special circumstance that the murder was committed in the commission of a rape
» First-degree murder of Janelle Cruz on May 5, 1986, and the special circumstance that the murder was committed in the commission of a rape
Almost all of the homicides also included special circumstances of using a firearm and committing murder in the commission of a burglary.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.