Golden State Killer suspect pleads guilty to multiple murders, kidnappings across California

An ex-police officeraccused of being the Golden State Killer,a serial predator who terrorized much of California with a string of slayings, rapes and break-ins over 10 years, pleaded guilty on Monday to multiple murder and kidnapping charges.

Joseph James DeAngelo, 74, entered the plea as part of a broader agreement with prosecutors from 11 California counties to admit to all allegations against him, charged and uncharged, in a crime wave dating back to the mid-1970s, prosecutors said at a hearing.

Under the terms of the plea deal, as outlined by prosecutors and a judge at the hearing, DeAngelo will face a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

While sparing the defendant from a potential death sentence, the deal also saves a dwindling number of aging survivors, victims' families, witnesses and law enforcement officers involved in the case from prolonged legal proceedings, prosecutors said.

The plea hearing was held in a ballroom at Sacramento State University, rather than a courthouse, to allow for moredistanced seating space amid the coronavirus pandemic.

DeAngelo, dressed in orange jail garb and slumped in a wheelchair with his mouth agape, answered "guilty" in a raspy voice when the judge asked his plea to the first of 13 counts of first-degree murder and kidnapping charges he faced, most of which also encompassed rape allegations.

WATCH |'Golden State Killer' Joseph DeAngelo admits guilt in court:

'Golden State Killer' Joseph DeAngelo admits guilt in court

4 years ago

Duration 1:00

Forty years after terrorizing parts of California, 74-year-old Joseph DeAngelo plead guilty to the first of several charges of murder and sexual assault.

He went on to plead guilty and admit to additional charges and allegations as prosecutors from 11 California counties took turns presenting "factual basis" statements graphically detailing every rape, murderand home invasion ofwhich DeAngelo was accused.

The hearing wore on for more than three hours before the judge recessed the proceedings for a lunch break.

DeAngelo's arrest in 2018 capped more than 40 years of investigation in a case that authorities said was finally solved by comparing crime-scene DNA evidence to information on genealogy websitesthat trackancestry.

In addition to 13 murders and kidnappings, prosecutors said DeAngelo was known to have committed nearly 50 rapes in all and more than 120 burglaries in and around Sacramento, the eastern San Francisco Bay area and Southern California.

The crimesspanned an 11-year period from 1975 to 1986 and began while DeAngelo was a police officer, authorities said. He served on two small-town departments during the 1970s.

The breakthrough came about two months after the case gained renewed national attention in the bestselling bookI'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara, which was published posthumously two years after the author's death and has recently been made into an HBO documentary series.