Updated 5:41 p.m.
Victim after victim lined up to describe Joseph DeAngelo as a "sick monster," "horrible man" and "subhuman" who changed their lives during a long reign of rape and murder that earned him the nickname Golden State Killer.
The daughter of one rape victim gave him an obscene hand gesture and cursed him Tuesday during the first of four days of hearings in Sacramento County Superior Court before DeAngelo is sentenced Friday. Last month he pleaded guilty to 13 murders and nearly 50 rapes between 1975 and 1986.
A woman named “Peggy” — who only testified using her first name — is believed to have been his second rape victim. For years, she spoke out about her experience in hopes of helping other rape victims, but the fear never went away.
“I began to be afraid that my rapist was still aware of who I was, and where I lived and what I did," she said Tuesday. "I decided that it may not be safe to be the rape survivor that was speaking up. I never got over the thoughts that he might return, that he may have kept track of me.”
A woman named “Kris” was attacked the week before Christmas of 1976 at the age of 15 and says the effects continue to this day.
"DeAngelo stole my formative years," she said. "He stole my youth, my innocence, my faith and my trust. Who could I have grown up to be? I guess I’ll never know."
It's the culmination of a plea deal that will spare 74-year-old Joseph DeAngelo the death penalty for 13 murders and numerous sadistic rapes and burglaries that terrorized California for more than a decade. DeAngelo will receive more than two dozen life sentences, but the state of California will not pursue the death penalty. Final sentencing for the case will take place Friday. There is no chance for parole.
The former police officer was the only suspect arrested in a violent crime spree that lasted more than a decade in California. The attacker was also known as the East Area Rapist in the Sacramento region.
He was arrested in 2018 after evading law enforcement for decades. Investigators used genealogy websites and DNA samples gathered at crimes scenes to solve the case.
"Forty-four years I've waited to hear him plead guilty," Jane Carson-Sanders, who was raped by DeAngelo in 1976, said at the June hearing where DeAngelo pleaded guilty. "That's a long time, 44 years. But I went from being a victim to a survivor to a thriver.”
Earlier this year, survivor Margaret Wardlow told CapRadio's Insight that she wanted to see him spend a lot of time in prison, and not just at the end of his life.
“Speaking for the other victims, a number of victims wanted to know: ‘Why me? Why was I chosen?” said Warlow. “I think I know why I was chosen. I think I was very active in the community. I was out and about with the kids. ... So, the question could be why did you pick me and more over, how did he get away with it for so long?”
The Associated Press contributed to this story
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