LOS ANGELES (AP) A serial killer known as the “Grim Sleeper” should be sentenced to death for murdering nine women and a teenage girl over more than two decades in South Los Angeles, a jury decided Monday.
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Franklin preyed on female prostitutes and drug addicts in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s at the height of a crack cocaine epidemic.
They listened to evidence tying Franklin to four additional homicides between 1984 and 2006, and also heard testimony from a woman who said she was kidnapped and raped by the defendant and his Army buddies in 1974, the release stated.
All of the victims were found in alleys, covered in debris, thrown into trash containers or dumped into bushes, a news release from the L.A. County Deputy District Attorney’s office said following Franklin’s conviction.
A slide image of victims displayed by the prosecution during Lonnie Franklin Jr.’s trial.
Lonnie David Franklin Jr killed nine women and a 15-year-old girl between 1985 and 2007, before dumping their bodies, often in alleyways.
A Los Angeles jury has reached a verdict in the penalty phase of the trial of a man convicted of “Grim Sleeper” serial killings.
Detectives eventually tied three further murders – in 2002, 2003 and 2007 – to the earlier killings after establishing a special task force.
Due to the gap between killing sprees, he was given the nickname “Grim Sleeper”. Relatives of Franklin’s victims hugged prosecutors and shed tears on the steps of the courtroom after the death verdict was delivered, according to the LA Times.
Although Franklin Jr. was believed to have spent 13 years away from slayings, police say new information may link him to a possible five more cases-of which, two bodies have not been recovered.
The recommendation was handed down on Monday, and must be formally upheld and imposed by a judge at a sentencing hearing scheduled for August 10.
They linked the crimes to Franklin after a technique called familial DNA – whereby samples taken from crime scenes are compared to those of criminals on a police data base – partially matched that of his son, who had been convicted of drug and firearms offences. “But my point to you today is that there is a better way”, Atherton said to the jury.
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A photo of Washington was then retrieved behind a wall of Franklin’s garage. Photos of other victims were also found in the home.
