SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ East Area Rapist suspect Joseph James DeAngelo was back in court Wednesday morning for a brief motion hearing involving a sealed search warrant in the case.
His public defender, Diane Howard, said the motion asks the court to enjoin the district attorney from taking further DNA, major case prints or body photographs from DeAngelo. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Sweet, who did not allow cameras in the courtroom, said he needs more time to review the request and put the matter over to 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
DeAngelo, 72, appeared in court in a wheelchair again, as he did for his first court appearance Friday in the case. In Wednesday's hearing, he appeared more alert than on Friday, when he could barely be heard as he whispered answers to the judge, but he did not speak and was wheeled out of court with his lawyer.
DeAngelo, who is being held in the Sacramento County Main Jail without bail, is expected to face a total of 12 murder charges from Sacramento, Orange, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties in connection with a 44-year-old crime spree.
DeAngelo, a former police officer and mechanic who was arrested a week ago at his Citrus Heights home, has not yet entered a plea in the case and is due for another court hearing May 14.
DeAngelo is suspected of being the man who terrorized California with a series of rapes, murders and burglaries attributed at the time to suspects known as the East Area Rapist in Sacramento, the Original Night Stalker, the Visalia Ransacker and the Golden State Killer.
He faces two murder counts in Sacramento in connection with the Feb. 2, 1978, slayings of Katie and Brian Maggiore in Rancho Cordova.
The young couple were walking their dog when they were confronted by a man who chased and shot them both to death.
