Joseph James DeAngelo, sitting in a wheelchair, is brought out of the courtroom for a break in the schedule for the third day of victim impact statements at the Gordon D. Schaber Sacramento County Courthouse on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020, in Sacramento, Calif. DeAngelo, 74, a former police officer in California eluded capture for four decades before being identified as the Golden State Killer. DeAngelo pleaded guilty in June to 13 murders and 13 rape-related charges stemming from crimes in the 1970s and 1980s. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, Pool)
By Don Thompson
A former California police officer dubbed the Golden State Killer told victims Friday hew was "truly sorry" before he was sentenced to multiple life prison sentences for a decade-long string of rapes and murders that terrorized a wide swath of the state.
Joseph James DeAngelo, 74, pleaded guilty in June to 13 murders and 13 rape-related charges under a plea deal that avoided a possible death sentence.
The punishment imposed by Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman means DeAngelo will die in prison for the crimes committed between 1975 and 1986.
Before sentencing, DeAngelo rose from a wheelchair, took off his mask, and said to the court: "I listened to all your statements, each one of them, and I'm truly sorry for everyone I've hurt."
DeAngelo also publicly admitted dozens of more sexual assaults for which the statute of limitations had expired. Prosecutors called the scale of the violence "simply staggering," encompassing 87 victims at 53 crime scenes spanning 11 California counties.
So many were his victims that Bowman sentenced DeAngelo in a university ballroom large enough to hold the survivors and their families, after an extraordinary three days of hearings in which they told in often heart-rending detail how he had upended their lives.
DeAngelo sat silently through those hearings, expressionless in a wheelchair that prosecutors contended is a prop to hide his still vigorous health.
He eluded capture for four decades until investigators used a new form of DNA tracking to unmask and arrest him in 2018.
Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty but settled for a life term given California's moratorium on executions, the coronavirus pandemic, and the advancing age of DeAngelo, his victims, and witnesses they needed to make their case.
Bowman sentenced DeAngelo under a plea deal that called for him to be sentenced to 11 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, plus 15 life terms with the possibility of parole and eight years for other enhancements.
In February 2022, over 65 congressional members sent a letter to Secretary Buttigieg and the Department of Transportation urging the agency to update certain safety standards when it comes to crash testing. So, what exactly are advocates calling for and why do they say our crash tests need a major update?
Elon Musk buys Twitter, a Texas mother gets a stay of execution, and one very lucky job-seeker could become Chief Taco Officer. Here is all the news you Need2Know for Tuesday, April 26, 2022.
Data from a Slack Future Forum survey shows employees returning full-time to the office are not thrilled with their experience. Sheela Subramanian, vice [resident of the Future Forum, joined Cheddar News to talk about how worker satisfaction is worsening in returning to the office compared to those workers with flexible schedules. "Employers need to actually empower their teams to create team level agreements and also skill their managers to better lead distributed teams because everybody's work is different," Subramanian noted.
UPSIDE foods, a company that makes cultivated meat products, recently raised $400 million in a Series C round.
UPSIDE says it's developing a way to grow real meat, poultry, and seafood, without the need to raise animals for human consumption. It's a process that gets the attention of some big-name backers, including Bill Gates and Richard Branson. Dr. Uma Valeti, Founder and CEO of UPSIDE Foods, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Samantha Tan, professional racing driver and team owner of Samantha Tan Racing, joins Cheddar News to talk the motorsport community, being an ambassador for the AAPI Victory Alliance, and her mental health.
Hosts of the new MTV ]show "Help! I'm in a Secret Relationship," recording artist Travis Mills and actor Rahne Jones, joined Cheddar News to talk about the new show and how sheds light on romantic partners who are keeping their other halves hidden away from other parts of their lives. "Travis and I go in and we investigate and figure out what is going on in hopes that we can sit the two parties down and have a resolution, a conversation, a productive conversation, in hopes that the relationships remain intact," said Jones. "But unfortunately that does not happen all the time, which is where, where the drama, where the drama comes." Mills added that “I honestly think that the pandemic gave people who want to hide their partner a really good excuse."
Once called the rent-forever generation, Millennials are bucking the trend. But just as they age into their prime home-buying years, they’ve run up against a red hot housing market exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Cheddar News senior Reporter Chloe Aiello went to Hudson, N.Y., to learn more.
Every year on April 8th, we celebrate the deliciousness of empanadas for National Empanada Day! This time, Cheddar's News Wrap was joined by New York's own Empanada Mama to try some of interesting flavors.
