Golden State Killer suspect to face murder trial in Sacramento
SANTA ANA, Calif. — Prosecutors from six California counties announced Tuesday that the trial of the so-called Golden State Killer will be held in Sacramento.
Former police officer Joseph DeAngelo, 72, was arrested on April 25 at his suburban Sacramento home. He was later charged with 13 murders in the 1970s and 1980s, spanning Contra Costa, Orange, Santa Barbara, Tulare, Ventura and Sacramento Counties.
DeAngelo was most recently charged with first-degree murder in the 1975 killing of community college teacher Claude Snelling, who was shot while stopping the kidnapping of his 16-year-old daughter in Visalia.
Detectives are also confident that DeAngelo is a burglar known as the Visalia Ransacker, who struck more than 100 homes in the 1970s, terrorizing the farming community about 40 miles south of Fresno, Visalia police Chief Jason Salazar said.
DeAngelo worked as a police officer in the nearby town of Exeter from 1973 to 1976.
DeAngelo is also suspected of committing roughly 50 rapes but he can't be tried on those crimes or the burglaries because the statute of limitations has expired.
Authorities finally arrested DeAngelo in April at his Citrus Heights home and said they believed he was the killer who had long proved elusive to authorities.
DeAngelo is scheduled to appear in court for arraignment on Thursday afternoon.