SACRAMENTO — The sentence came as no surprise.
Nearly two months after pleading guilty to 13 murders and admitting to dozens of sexual assaults he committed as the Golden State Killer and East Area Rapist — including three 1978 rapes in Davis — Joseph James DeAngelo got the punishment Friday he agreed to: life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Over the three previous days, DeAngelo sat through impact statements from his victims and their survivors, who as promised spoke with no limitations in time or content as they described how his 12-year crime spree affected their lives.
Then came Friday’s sentencing hearing held inside in a Sacramento State University ballroom, chosen to accommodate a large audience under COVID-19 social-distancing protocols. The outcome, the result of a plea deal hammered out weeks ago, received approval from prosecutors and victims alike.
What did stun those in the makeshift courtroom, however, was when DeAngelo — a disgraced former police officer who until then showed little, if any, reaction to his victims’ words — stood up from his chair on a temporary stage, removed his face mask and, after a lengthy pause, spoke.
In the audience, many who came to bear witness to DeAngelo’s fate shifted forward in their seats. Some held up enlarged photos of the loved ones whose lives he cut short.
“I’ve listened to all your statements — each one of them — and I am truly sorry to everyone I’ve hurt,” the 74-year-old convicted killer said, his voice sounding far louder and stronger than his frail, raspy guilty pleas.
For most, however, the apology fell beyond flat.
“It was all B.S.,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said at a post-hearing press conference, where he noted that DeAngelo failed to acknowledge the damage he inflicted on his own family, several of whom submitted their own written statements.
While none attempted to excuse his crimes, a sister claimed DeAngelo bore the brunt of mental and physical abuse inflicted by their father. One niece wrote that “Uncle Joe” offered refuge from her own abusive household; another professed love but said after learning of his conduct, “I no longer have trust in anyone.”
“By leaving out his relatives, that statement apologizing was a fake. It was a sham. It was not remorseful,” Spitzer said. “He left destruction in his tracks, and I won’t forgive him. I never will.”
Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig, who watched the proceedings remotely, declined to discuss DeAngelo’s remarks.
As for his life sentence, “I’m not sure (it) can ever truly account for the unspeakable evils perpetrated by this monster, but the case is now done,” Reisig said. “We can only hope that there is some solace for all those affected by his crimes.”
Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. offers a brief apology before being sentenced on the Sacramento Sate campus Friday, Aug. 21. DeAngelo, 74, was sentenced to multiple life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole, under a plea agreement that allowed him to avoid the death sentence. In June, DeAngelo admitted being the infamous Golden State Killer. The former police officer in California eluded capture for four decades. He admitted killing 13 people and raping nearly 50 in the 1970s and ’80s. San Francisco Chronicle/Pool photo
‘Deserves no mercy’
In the end, DeAngelo received 11 consecutive life terms in prison, the result of a June 29 plea agreement that prosecutors said avoids lengthy court delays and an expensive trial while offering swifter justice for the victims.
The resolution also spared DeAngelo, whose DNA linked him to the decades-old crimes, from a potential death sentence.
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman imposed DeAngelo’s fate after three straight days of empowered victim-impact statements, either read in person those who survived his terror, or by victim advocates who ensured their voices would at last be heard.
“Their impact statements will always be with me. I was moved by their courage, their grace, their strength — all qualities you clearly lack,” Bowman said Friday. “As I listened to the survivors and I watched you, I could not help but wonder, what are you thinking? Are you capable of comprehending the pain and anguish you caused?”
Bowman’s concluding words — “The defendant deserves no mercy” — received a standing ovation.
Laura Valdes, director of the Yolo County District Attorney’s victim services program, appeared in court Wednesday to deliver a statement on behalf of a married couple attacked in their Davis home on June 24, 1978.
Theirs was one of three Davis households that fell under the East Area’s Rapist’s crosshairs that summer, along with a UC Davis student and a woman home alone with her two sons. Although those crimes were not charged due to expired statutes of limitations, DeAngelo admitted to them as part of his plea deal.
Yolo County District Attorney Victim Services Program director Laura Valdes makes a statement on behalf of Yolo County victims to Joseph James DeAngelo during the second day of victim impact statements Wednesday, Aug. 19, in Sacramento. San Francisco Chronicle/Pool photo
“Dear Honorable Judge: We would like to be identified as the Yolo County couple,” the statement began.
“For 42 years, we have lived with the memories of the night we were suddenly awakened by a man standing in our bedroom doorway, shouting orders with a flashlight and a gun in hand, threatening death if we resisted. We were furious that this man ruined our innocence, angry that the memories persist, frustrated that there are triggers that still remind us of this horror, and tired of enduring 40 years of fear that he might return to kill us as he threatened.
“But one of the police officers who hovered around us that night said, ‘Don’t let him change your life,’ so we persevered, pushed the intrusive memories away and carried on — traumatized but surviving, even thriving.
“Then one morning two years ago, my husband checked his computer for daily news, as usual, and came to me with a big hug and whispered in my ear, ‘They caught him.’ We both felt an instant lightness in our hearts, a lifting of the fear and rage we had felt for all those years. Astonished by the news, we had not thought the East Area Rapist would ever be found.
“We want to thank the whole law enforcement team, especially the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, for their persistence in trying to find this perpetrator who caused so much trauma and grief for us and for so many other victims. They did not let the cases be forgotten. It is truly gratifying to have the closure to know that the East Area Rapist is finally behind bars. Please, don’t ever let him out.
“Sincerely, the Yolo County couple.”
Others who spoke out included DeAngelo’s ex-wife, Sharon Huddle, and former fiancée Bonnie Ueltzen, whose bitter breakup with DeAngelo decades ago likely spurred him to utter “I hate you — I hate you, Bonnie” during one of the Davis attacks.
‘Sociopath in action’
On Friday it was the prosecutors’ turn, with district attorneys from six counties — Contra Costa, Orange, Sacramento, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura — taking the podium to honor the victims and reiterate their call for the maximum sentence allowed under the law.
Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, who led the multi-county task force that solved the long-dormant case, directed some of her comments right at DeAngelo. She noted the weak physical state he demonstrated in court over the past two years, transported by wheelchair while appearing dazed, which many considered an act intended to garner sympathy.
“Until the day you leave this Earth, this incredible team … will not just promise you but will ensure that you will never succeed at deceiving or manipulating the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation into believing that you are some feeble, inept old man who somehow deserves better housing or treatment,” Schubert said.
Debbi McMullan, left, with Melanie Barbeau standing by her side, confront Joseph James DeAngelo during the third day of victim impact statements Thursday, Aug. 20, in Sacramento. DeAngelo killed McMullan’s mother, Cheri Domingo, and Domingo’s boyfriend Gregory Sanchez in July 1981. San Francisco Chronicle/Pool photo
Later, at the press conference, Schubert played video footage from DeAngelo’s Sacramento County Jail cell recorded during the past two months. It showed him moving easily about the room, exercising and climbing the furniture in the days before and after his guilty pleas.
“Watch his flexibility. Watch his dexterity. Watch his mental drive,” Schubert said. “He has been, and always will be, a sociopath in action.”
Where DeAngelo goes from here is not immediately clear. While newly sentenced inmates typically are sent to a CDCR facility in Tracy for state prison assignments, the COVID-19 pandemic has suspended that process for the time being.
However, as an LWOP inmate — life without parole — DeAngelo ultimately will be housed at a Level 4 prison, its high-security conditions reserved for California’s most violent and dangerous offenders, prosecutors said.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene
‘Guilty’: Golden State Killer admits to statewide rape, murder spree