SANTA ANA — Joseph DeAngelo, the 72-year-old Citrus Heights man accused of being the notorious Golden State Killer, has been charged for the first time with crimes associated with nine Contra Costa rapes in the late 1970s, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Joined at a news conference in Orange County with five other district attorneys, Contra Costa District Attorney Diana Becton announced that DeAngelo, who already has been charged with 13 murders around the state, will face four kidnapping charges in Contra Costa County. Sacramento County also added nine similar charges against DeAngelo on Tuesday. The 13 new charges in Contra Costa and Sacramento counties include 21 special allegations of using a gun or knife during the crimes.
“The horrific crimes committed by Joseph DeAngelo terrorized the victims and residents of Contra Costa County,” Becton said. “For decades he evaded justice and devastated communities across California.”
Prosecutors called DeAngelo’s prosecution one of the largest joint cases in the state’s history. The former police officer was arrested in April after his DNA was linked to multiple Golden State Killer crime scenes, bringing closure to one of the state’s most notorious and deadly crime sprees spanning the 1970s and ’80s.
The four Contra Costa charges stemmed from attacks on Oct. 7, 1978, and Oct. 13, 1978, in Concord; Oct. 28, 1978, in San Ramon; and June 11, 1979, in Danville, according to the complaint.
The odd nature of the Contra Costa charges came about because of the laws at the time of the crimes. Each case involves a rape but could not be charged as such because the statute of limitations for that crime has passed.
Instead, DeAngelo has been charged with kidnapping during a robbery — a combination that has no time limit because it carried a possible life sentence when the crimes were committed, Becton said. The “kidnapping” in each case refers to DeAngelo allegedly detaining his victims against their will during commission of a robbery; only the rapes in which items were taken fit the definition.
The charges include special allegations of using a gun in all four attacks and a knife in two of them, according to the court documents.
DeAngelo faces four life sentences plus 10 years if convicted on just his Contra Costa charges. Prosecutors said they were still mulling whether to pursue the death penalty for some of his other alleged crimes.
Two of the Contra Costa cases have DNA evidence, Becton said, and both matched DeAngelo’s genetic profile. Investigators believe DeAngelo raped nine women in Contra Costa County, but in a phone interview after the news conference, Becton said her office determined four of the rapes couldn’t be charged because nothing was taken from the homes. Her office is still pursuing the one remaining case, a Walnut Creek rape in June 1979, so a future charge is possible.
Investigators believe DeAngelo was responsible for raping more than 50 women across the state.
“I think so far people have been very understanding,” Becton said of the victims whose cases will not be charged. “I think there’s been relief that we’re able to hold someone accountable especially since so much time passed.”
The Contra Costa attacks sparked fear across the county, according to news articles at the time. Gun sales skyrocketed, as citizens flooded hardware stores for deadbolts, alarms and peep holes. Police held public meetings to ease fears and offer safety precautions.
On Oct. 7, 1978, in the first of the newly charged cases, the East Side Rapist who had terrorized Sacramento-area communities and tallied dozens of rapes there came to the East Bay. In the early morning hours, he entered a Concord home in the Ygnacio Valley neighborhood near Oak Grove Road and Treat Boulevard. He raped a 26-year-old mother, after tying up her husband, a common method in all the crimes.
Less than a week later, the serial rapist broke into another Concord home less than a mile away and raped a 29-year-old woman, after tying up her husband. In both cases, young children slept through the attack, and, critically for the current charges, the Golden State Killer stole some items.
“We can only hope he left town,” a Concord police lieutenant said at the time.
He initially did leave, heading down Interstate 680 to San Ramon where in the early morning hours of Oct. 28, 1978, a 23-year-old mother woke to a masked man at the foot of her bed.
Again, after the rape the attacker allegedly stole a small amount of cash and jewelry. Prosecutors used that element to press charges in that case Tuesday.
The last of the newly charged attacks occurred June 11, 1979, in a Danville home. The rapist bound the husband, placed a pile of dishes on his chest, another Golden State Killer hallmark, and raped the wife, all while two small children slept in their bedrooms. It’s unclear what he stole there.
“I couldn’t be happier for the victims who are getting cases charged,” said Paul Holes, the former head of the Contra Costa crime lab who helped break the Golden State Killer case. “At least more victims will get their day in court.”
DeAngelo will be arraigned on the new charges Thursday in Sacramento County Superior Court.
