Rape victims confront Golden State Killer in court, as sentencing hearings begin

Early rape victims of the Golden State Killer got their long-awaited opportunity to confront him in court on Tuesday, Aug. 18, at the start of a series of sentencing hearings that are expected to end with a judge ordering him to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Women described the sadistic sexual assaults they or their loved ones suffered at the hands of Joseph DeAngelo more than 40 years ago – and the trauma that has trailed them ever since.

DeAngelo, a former police officer turned serial killer who carried out dozens of rapes and 13 murders across the state in the 1970s and 1980s, has agreed to a plea deal that spares him the death penalty in exchange for admitting to a dozen-year crime wave that terrorized countless communities.

But before a judge hands down DeAngelo’s formal sentence on Friday, dozens of victims are scheduled to provide statements to the court over three days. The first victims to speak were those attacked by DeAngelo in the Sacramento area toward the beginning of his crime spree, when he was known as the East Area Rapist.

Some of the women – each identified in court records only as “Jane Doe” – wrote statements that were read by family members or supporters. One appeared via a videotaped statement (The Southern California News Group and the Bay Area News Group are not naming those who spoke to avoid identifying sexual-assault victims).

One woman recalled DeAngelo breaking into her family home on July 17, 1976, while her parents were out of town, punching her, tying her and her sister up and raping her.

She was the second victim and recalled the fear that would end up enveloping her community, the constant headlines, and the highly-visible police search for the suspect that was a constant reminder of the attack.

“There was so much physical and emotional trauma I carried with me,” she said. “My God, we were just high school kids living a normal life – going to school, church group, having friends over. Now this horrific experience was part of me and who I would become, but we were lucky he didn’t kill us.”

Another woman described DeAngelo breaking into her family home while her father was at work and closing her bedroom door before attacking her mother in their kitchen. The woman, who was 7-years old, recalled waking up to find a “dark figure in a ski mask” blocking the doorway to her parents’ bedroom.

“I couldn’t make sense of it, I never will,” the woman said. “Even as a child I could sense evil. … That was the day I knew I had proof. Monsters were real. I had met the Bogeyman.”

Another victim recalled DeAngelo repeatedly raping her at knifepoint a week before Christmas in 1976, when she was 15 years old.

“He told me over and over again he would kill me, and I believed him,” the woman said. “At three different times that night I thought I was going to die. I sang, ‘Jesus Loves Me’ in my head as I waited to die.”

Some of the rape victims didn’t survive to see the Golden State Killer’s arrest. The sister of a woman who was raped and terrorized by DeAngelo for hours during a Oct. 29, 1977, break-in at her home told the judge that the victim died following a long battle with cancer two years before his arrest.

“It saddens me to my core that my sister was not here to witness DeAngelo’s capture and incarceration,’ the woman said. “Instead, she went to her grave still haunted by the evil monster who entered her life.”

Many of those who spoke on Tuesday noted that fear from the attacks was widespread in the Sacramento area, with one describing it as “living in a horror movie every day.”

Some victims said they were shocked to realize the person who had haunted their lives for so long turned out to be a “feeble” old man by the time he was arrested.

“He is a horrible old man, and none of us have to worry about him anymore,” one victim said.

“The world – and I mean the entire world – knows who you are and what you did,” another told DeAngelo.

DeAngelo, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit and a white face covering, showed no reaction to the emotional statements from the victims.

Now 74, he has appeared frail at recent hearings, though prosecutors and some victims have suggested that is just an act.

What began as a series of burglaries and rapes escalated into murders as the now-named Golden State Killer moved from the Sacramento area to the Central Valley, the Bay Area and, finally, to Southern California.

It wasn’t until 2001 that DNA evidence tied all of the crimes together and investigators realized the massive geographic scope of what he did.

Victims, and relatives of victims, are scheduled to continue on Wednesday and Thursday telling the court about the crimes’ impact, with the judge expected to announce DeAngelo’s sentencing itself Friday morning.