SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ A Sacramento County judge on Friday ordered the release of portions of search warrants and related documents that detail why authorities think Joseph DeAngelo Jr. is the Golden State Killer and what they hoped to find inside his home.
Judge Michael Sweet ordered their release after hearing objections from DeAngelo's defense team and concerns from prosecutors about any effects on a future trial. An attorney representing the Los Angeles Times and other media outlets had filed a motion to have the warrants unsealed for the public record.
The documents provide the public's first glimpse into the case detectives built against DeAngelo, the former police officer accused of terrorizing communities across California in the 1970s and '80s. During that time, he is believed to have been behind at least 12 killings, dozens of rapes and more than 100 burglaries. The names and other identifying information for at least 75 surviving victims, witnesses and detectives included in the warrant were redacted, along with details of previously suspected rapes.
Sweet ruled that a list of the evidence seized from DeAngelo's home, computer and his phone will remain sealed.
Media lawyer Duffy Carolan said she was generally pleased with the ruling. The Sacramento County district attorney's office emphasized that it did not ask for the records to be sealed and that 95 percent of the material being redacted was at the request of DeAngelo's public defenders.
Sweet said in a verbal order that he was striving to protect DeAngelo's right to a fair trial. He quoted Benjamin Franklin: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
Half a dozen of the Golden State Killer's victims who have been attending the Sacramento court hearings were present for Friday's decision but asked not to be identified.
One woman had no opinion on the release of the arrest records, saying, "I don't care, as long as it doesn't hurt the case."
Another woman, who said she was raped by the Golden State Killer, said she is attending DeAngelo's court appearances "to drill holes in the back of his head."
Under state law, her rapist no longer can be charged, but she still wants the unresolved crime to be a presence in the courtroom.
Although it has received intense media scrutiny, attorneys say the search warrants gloss over the novel _ and some say controversial _ investigative strategy detectives used to find a suspect when they compared genetic information in DNA from one of their crime scenes to a public genealogy database.
Results from that genealogy search turned up a distant relative linked to the suspect through DNA, giving authorities a family tree to search for an exact match to their evidence. Officials say that eventually led them to follow DeAngelo until they discreetly obtained two DNA samples from him, which confirmed their suspicions about his connection with the case. He was arrested April 24.
DeAngelo is charged with the shooting deaths of two people in Sacramento and 10 more counts of murder in three other counties, the culmination of a four-decade manhunt for a serial burglar and rapist who often hit multiple homes in a night, stole mementos from his victims or taunted them later with phone threats.
Whole communities were stricken with fear as the crime wave grew on both sides of the state and in the Central Valley starting in the early 1970s. Families bought guard dogs and guns, installed extra deadbolts on their front doors and secured their rear windows and sliding doors. Authorities say DeAngelo's crimes covered territories in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Orange counties, where several women were raped and fatally beaten between 1979 and 1986.
One couple was found bludgeoned to death with a fireplace log in Ventura. Another was found tied up and shot to death in Santa Barbara County.
Investigators also think DeAngelo was responsible for a crime wave in Visalia that involved dozens of home burglaries, assaults and one killing. Authorities say he may have begun his criminal activity as a cat burglar in Rancho Cordova in the early 1970s.
DeAngelo worked as a police officer for small towns in California until 1979, when he was fired in Auburn for shoplifting a hammer and dog repellent. He then worked for decades as a truck mechanic, living in a suburb north of Sacramento and communities that had been terrified by sexual assaults and killings now attributed to the Golden State Killer.
After his arrest, prosecutors from Sacramento, Ventura, Orange and Santa Barbara counties met to discuss where and how to put DeAngelo on trial for the slayings because the crimes cover multiple jurisdictions. No decision has been made.
