A Los Angeles jury that convicted a former sanitation worker in a string of murders attributed to a serial killer known as the “Grim Sleeper” reached verdicts on Monday in the penalty phase of the case, which could see him sentenced to death.
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The jury, which heard about 2 1/2 weeks of testimony during the trial’s penalty phase, deliberated about 1 1/2 days before finding Franklin guilty of the killings, which occurred between 1985 and 1988 and 2002 and 2007.
Police didn’t connect the crimes to a serial killer for years.
On Monday, Franklin’s defense attorney slammed the amount of money prosecutors spent on the case and the costs associated with the death penalty.
Family members of the victims cried as the verdicts were read.
Anticipating the defense’s argument about an unknown assailant rather than Franklin being responsible for the killings, the prosecutor told jurors in her closing argument that Franklin “acted alone” and that his DNA profile is “the only DNA profile that repeats over and over”. The killings from 1985 to 2007 were dubbed the work of the Grim Sleeper because of an apparent 14-year gap after one woman survived a gunshot to the chest in 1988.
Diane Ware said she has been awaiting justice for her slain daughter Barbara for years.
The victims were all young black women, some were prostitutes and most had been using cocaine before their bodies were discovered in alleys in a rough part of Los Angeles, hidden in trash bins or covered by mattresses or debris.
Franklin was connected to his victims through ballistics or DNA evidence, ABC 7 reported prosecutors said.
As she was losing consciousness, he sexually assaulted her and she remembered seeing the flash from a Polaroid camera. Police found photos of other victims in the home.
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He also was found guilty of attempted murder in 1988, when an eleventh victim, Enierta Washington, survived being raped, shot in the chest, pushed out of a auto, and left for dead.
