“Hollywood Ripper” Discovered Responsible of Homicide After Ashton Kutcher Testimony
Accused serial killer Michael Gargiulo, aka “Hollywood Ripper,” has been discovered responsible of the homicide of two ladies, together with one who was courting Ashton Kutcher on the time, and the tried homicide of one other one.
The decision was handed down at Los Angeles courtroom on Thursday, NBC Los Angeles reported, greater than two months after the actor testified towards the 43-year-old defendant. The sentence has but to be introduced and prosecutors are seeing a demise penalty.
Garguilo’s trial started in Might. he had pleaded not responsible to costs of homicide and an attempted-murder stemming from assaults within the Los Angeles space between 2001 and 2008, the yr he was arrested.
Certainly one of his victims, 22-year-old vogue pupil and stripper Ashley Ellerin, was discovered useless in 2001 in her Hollywood Hills residence. Prosecutors say Gargiulo stabbed her 47 instances.
Kutcher testified a few months in the past that the night time earlier than her homicide, he had stopped to select her up for a date and noticed the lights had been on however that she didn’t reply the door. He noticed by way of a window what he thought had been crimson wine stains on a carpet carpeted stairway. He mentioned he then left, considering she had already gone out with a buddy. The next morning, Ellerin’s roommate found her physique and Kutcher realized what occurred to her. He spoke to police and mentioned he was “freaking out” as a result of he knew his fingerprints can be on the house’s entrance door.
The actor’s testimony marked his first public feedback about Ellerin’s killing.
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Gargiulo is believed to have stalked younger ladies who lived close to him for 15 years. He allegedly generally used his job as an air-conditioning repairman to achieve entry into their properties.
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Along with Ellerin, he’s accused of fatally stabbing 32-year-old Maria Bruno in her mattress inside her condominium in El Monte, California and mutilating her physique in 2005, and in addition stabbing one other girl, Michelle Murphy, 26, eight instances in her Santa Monica condominium in 2008. She survived.
Gargiulo had informed CBS’ 48 Hours in 2011,” when requested in regards to the California assaults, “I am 100 p.c harmless.”
Gargiulo can also be anticipated to face trial over the 1993 deadly stabbing of 18-year-old Tricia Pacaccio, the sister of one in all his associates, exterior her household’s residence close to Chicago. Gargiulo’s lawyer had informed the jury on the Los Angeles trial that his consumer denies killing all three ladies.