COVID may have changed the terms of the prosecution of 74-year-old Joseph DeAngelo, who was arrested in 2018 as the suspected Golden State Killer, an individual responsible for dozens of rapes and murders in the ’70s and ’80s — including four homicides in Goleta .
The terrifying crime spree spread across six counties, and district attorneys from those six counties turned down a plea bargain for DeAngelo's admission of guilt in exchange for life in prison — instead of the death penalty — in early March. But on Monday, Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley and the other DAs issued press releases stating “a moral and ethical responsibility to consider any offer from the defense, given the massive scope of the case, the advanced age of many of the victims and witnesses, and our inherent obligations to the victims.”
Two hours earlier, the Los Angeles Times published a scoop that a plea deal was on the table for DeAngelo’s life in exchange for a guilty plea. The preliminary hearings alone could reportedly involve more than 100 witnesses and take months — difficult in these COVID days for the health-vulnerable, elderly witnesses involved. Some victims assented to DeAngelo’s plea given the pandemic, while others objected that the details of the investigations decades ago would never be known.