Crime & Safety
Jury Sentences 'Hollywood Ripper' To Death
Jurors have recommended a death sentence for the so-called 'Hollywood Ripper,' who killed and mutilated two SoCal women & attacked a third.
HOLLYWOOD, CA --Jurors recommended a death sentence today for the so-called ``Hollywood Ripper,'' who was convicted of killing and mutilating two Southern California women and attacking a third who survived to testify against him.
Michael Gargiulo -- who is set to be formally sentenced Feb. 28 -- was convicted Aug. 15 of two counts of first-degree murder for the Feb. 22, 2001, slaying of 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin in her Hollywood bungalow hours before she was set to go out with actor Ashton Kutcher, along with the Dec. 1, 2005, killing of Maria Bruno, a 32-year-old mother of four young children, in her El Monte apartment.
Jurors also found the 43-year-old defendant guilty of the attempted murder of Michelle Murphy, who was stabbed eight times in her Santa Monica apartment in April 2008.
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The panel found true the special-circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder while lying in wait, and subsequently found that Gargiulo was sane at the time of the crimes.
Jurors deliberated less than five hours before reaching their verdict in the penalty phase, opting for a recommendation of death over a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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Gargiulo is awaiting trial separately in Illinois in connection with the killing of an 18-year-old woman, Tricia Pacaccio, who was repeatedly stabbed on her front doorstep after returning home in Glenview, Illinois, from a night out with friends Aug. 14, 1993. Jurors in Gargiulo's Los Angeles trial heard about that killing, with her mother and two brothers testifying during the trial's penalty phase.