A man dubbed the “Hollywood Ripper” has been found guilty of murdering two young women, including a woman who arranged to go on date with actor Ashton Kutcher on the night she was killed.
Aspiring actor Michael Gargiulo was found guilty of an attempted murder as well as the two killings, which were carried out during a seven-year-span of violence.
The 43-year-old was convicted for the murder of 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin in her Hollywood home in 2001 on a night she was about to meet Kutcher, who testified in the trial.
The court heard how Kutcher “freaked out” when he discovered his date has been stabbed to death in her own home after he was late to meet her.
Gargiulo also was convicted of the 2005 murder of 32-year old Maria Bruno in her El Monte home, and with the 2008 attempted murder of Michelle Murphy in a stabbing attack in her Santa Monica apartment.
The verdict came after an anxious three-day wait while jurors deliberated. As well as the murder charges, Gargiulo was also found guilty of several special-circumstance allegations, including lying in wait and multiple murders, which make him eligible for the death penalty or life in prison with no possibility of parole.
The brutal nature of Gargiulo’s attacks and the fact that they were all carried out with a knife led to the "Hollywood Ripper" description in the media.
Several special-circumstance allegations, including lying in wait and multiple murders, which make him eligible for the death penalty or life in prison with no possibility of parole.
Kutcher, who in 2001 was a rising star, testified early in the trial that he and Miss Ellerin were just getting to know each other and had made plans to go out together for drinks.
He said he arrived at her Hollywood home very late and assumed she had gone out without him when he got no answer at the door.
"I remember the next day, after I heard about what happened, I went to the detectives and said, 'My fingerprints are on the door,"' Kutcher testified. "I was freaking out."
Gargiulo is also accused of another murder in the state of Illinois many years before - in 1993, when he allegedly attacked 18-year-old Tricia Pacaccio, the older sister of a friend.
