LOS ANGELES — The man known as the “Hollywood Ripper,” Michael Gargiulo, was sentenced to death Friday for the home-invasion murders of two women. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry P. Fidler called Gargiulo’s crimes “vicious and frightening” during the sentencing hearing. One of Gargiulo’s victim’s included Ashton Kutcher’s female acquainance, Ashley Ellerin, according to reports.
Gargiulo, 45, was convicted in August 2019 of the 2001 murder of Ashley Ellerin, 22, and the 2005 murder of 32-year-old Maria Bruno. Moreover, was also found guilty of attempted murder in a 2008 attack of another woman in Santa Monica, the New York Post reported.
The third victim — who survived — is Michelle Murphy. She testified against him at his trial and returned to the downtown Los Angeles courtroom for his sentencing, NBC Los Angeles reported.
Ellerin was found in her Hollywood home with 47 stab wounds. She had been due to go on a date with Kutcher, then an up-and-coming young actor.
Kutcher offered testimony at the murder trial. The actor said he was late to pick up Ellerin before her body was discovered. As he was running behind schedule, he repeatedly called to let her know he was delayed. When he arrived at her home, she didn’t answer the door, so he assumed she had stood him up.
At one point, Kutcher looked through a window and saw what he thought was red wine spilled on the floor before leaving, assuming she had already gone out, the Post reported.
Prosecutors portrayed Gargiulo as a “stone-cold serial killer who preys on women,” ambushing victims in a series of calculated attacks, according to NBC.
Furthermore, they said Gargiulo targeted young, good-looking women who lived nearby. They nicknamed him “The Boy Next Door Killer.” He earned the nicknames “The Chiller Killer” and “The Hollywood Ripper” from media outlets, the Post report.
“Everywhere that Mr. Gargiulo went, death and destruction followed him,” Fidler said as he sentenced Gargiulo to death.
Calling the circumstances of the attacks “completely vicious and frightening,” the judge also rejected an automatic motion to reduce the jury’s October 2019 recommendation of a death sentence for Gargiulo to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The condemned killer was a former bouncer, air-conditioner repairman and aspiring actor. His attorneys claim he has “mental illness,” and therefore should not be sentenced to death.
The case was tried under prior Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s administration. Current DA George Gascon “does not believe the death penalty is an appropriate punishment in any case.”
Fidler said he “read and considered” a statement from Gascon, which was not read in open court, NBC reported.
Ellerin’s father, Michael, said he wanted to go on record to object to Gascon’s “political intrusion into my daughter’s murder trial.” Of note, he also wants Gov. Gavin Newsom to know that he has “no right to ignore the documented will of the voters” through the 2019 moratorium he imposed on the death penalty in California.
The victim’s father said it took “two decades to get to the sentencing” of a man whom he said killed “for the thrill of it.” He said his son “chose not to be here today with the evil sociopath that killed his sister.”
The last execution in California occurred on Jan. 17, 2006, when the state executed Clarence Ray Allen, according to the Sacramento Bee.
Allen died by lethal injection after he was convicted on three counts of first degree murder with special circumstances and one count of conspiracy for the deaths of Bryon William Schletewitz, Douglas Scott White and Josephine Linda Rocha, which occurred 22 years earlier.
Gargiulo is expected to be extradited to Illinois to stand trial for the 1993 slaying of 18-year-old Tricia Pacaccio.
