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LOS ANGELES (AP) – For crimes he described as “vicious and frightening”, a judge on Friday sentenced a man called “The Boy Next Door Killer” to death for the home invasions of two women and the attempted murder of a third party.
Family members of the victims cried when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry P. Fidler sentenced Michael Thomas Gargiulo, 45.
“Wherever Mr. Gargiulo went, death and destruction followed him,” Fidler said during the all-day hearing.
Gargiulo’s case received special attention as one of his victims was about to have a date with actor Ashton Kutcher, who testified at the trial.
The conviction, delayed by procedural issues and the pandemic, came nearly two years after a jury convicted Gargiulo and recommended his execution.
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Gargiulo was convicted of the 2001 murder of Ashley Ellerin, a 22-year-old fashion design student, at her Hollywood home as she prepared to date Kutcher. During the trial, Kutcher said he was late to pick up Ellerin, who did not answer his door.
He looked inside to see stains of blood that he thought were spilled wine. Prosecutors used it in their pleadings, suggesting that Ellerin was killed by another man jealous of Kutcher.
Ellerin was found with 47 stab wounds.
Her father, Michael Ellerin, who had visited his northern California daughter hours before she was killed, was one of the relatives of several victims who spoke at the hearing about their suffering as she was killed. they had been waiting for justice for years.
He said he was tempted to emulate the “crying cry and primary lamentations of his wife Cynthia after finding out that Ashley had been murdered”.
“It marked the start of an altered, diminished and heartbreaking life,” he said.
Gargiulo was also convicted of the murder of Maria Bruno, 32, a mother of four, at her home in El Monte, east of Los Angeles, in 2005. Bruno’s breasts were cut and his implants were removed. been withdrawn.
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And he was convicted of the 2008 attempted murder of Michelle Murphy, who fought him in her Santa Monica apartment, causing him to flee and leave a trail of blood which also led to his eventual arrests for the other two murders. Murphy was the key witness at the trial.
“To this day, spending the night alone creates a world of fear within me,” Murphy said in court before sentencing.
She cried as she spoke of meeting the families of the two women who did not survive their attacks.
“How is it fair that one person’s actions can destroy the lives of so many people?” ” she said.
Gargiulo is a former air conditioner and heater repairman, bouncer, and aspiring actor whose nicknames in the media included “The Chiller Killer” and “The Hollywood Ripper,” but was called “The Boy Next Door Killer” by prosecutors because that he lived near the victims he tracked down and then attacked in their homes.
He spoke ahead of his conviction, angrily complaining that his lawyers had prevented him from speaking up for him.
“I’m going on death row right and wrong,” said Gargiulo, who appeared in court in orange jail gear and a face mask and showed no visible reaction to his conviction. “I wanted to testify and my fundamental choice was blocked.”
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He is unlikely to be put to death anytime soon. California has not executed anyone since 2006, and Governor Gavin Newsom has suspended executions while he is in office. But the courts assume that executions may one day resume.
Gargiulo is now expected to be extradited to Illinois for the 1993 murder of Tricia Pacaccio in his hometown of Illinois. Prosecutors in his California trial were allowed to present ample evidence of this case as they sought to draw a pattern and present Gargiulo as a serial killer.
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