Joseph James DeAngelo admitted he was the Golden State Killer on Monday morning, pleading guilty to four murders and two rapes committed decades ago in Goleta. They are among the 13 first-degree murders and nearly 50 rapes he will admit to committing between 1975 and 1988 at a hearing in Sacramento. Grisly accounts of the crimes were heard from prosecutors from Tulare, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties before the court took its first break.
The hearing was specially called to accept 74-year-old DeAngelo’s guilty pleas in exchange for life in prison instead of the death penalty. Prompting the decision to let DeAngelo plead was COVID-19 and the advanced ages of DeAngelo, his victims, and the witnesses. Lengthy preliminary hearings for evidence before trial were expected to take months and survey 100 witnesses. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman told DeAngelo his plea would result in 11 consecutive life sentences for the murder charges and 15 concurrent ones on the kidnap charges. He was also to admit his guilt to acts that were as-yet uncharged in seven counties.
Santa Barbara County Chief Deputy District Attorney Kelly Duncan presented a detailed account of DeAngelo’s breaking into the Goleta homes occupied by Robert Offerman and Debra Manning in 1979 and Cheri Domingo and Greg Sanchez in 1981. She recounted in brief, grim detail how they’d been tied up, the women raped, the bullet or blunt trauma wounds they sustained, and which ones caused their death.