Michael Gargiulo, who was dubbed the 'Hollywood Ripper', was sentenced to death on Friday for the murder of two women.
Prior to the sentencing, a judge denied the defense's motion for a new trial for the so-called "Hollywood Ripper". Gargiulo was convicted of killing and mutilating two California women. A third survived his attack and testified against him.
The defense argued there was not sufficient evidence presented at trial to support Gargiulo’s conviction, but Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler disagreed, saying, “This is much ado about nothing.”
Jurors recommended the death penalty for Gargiulo’s 2001 slaying of 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin in her Hollywood bungalow hours before she was supposed to meet with actor Ashton Kutcher and the 2005 killing of 32-year-old Maria Bruno in her El Monte apartment.
Gargiulo was also convicted of the attempted murder of Michelle Murphy. Gargiulo stabbed Murphy eight times in her Santa Monica apartment in April 2008.
"In this case, everywhere that Mr. Gargiulo went, death and destruction followed," the judge said.
The defense requested the 2019 recommendation of a death sentence be reduced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
"It's not right to execute a mentally ill person," an attorney for Gargiulo, Daniel Nardoni, said to the judge.
However, a jury found Gargiulo sane during the sanity phase of the trial in Aug. 2019.
Gargiulo’s attorneys also attempted to use LA District Attorney George Gascón’s opposition to the death penalty as cause for a sentence reduction.
Fidler said he had "read and considered" a statement from Gascón. The statement was not read in open court. Fidler also said,” The district attorney’s personal opposition is not a legal opposition.”
Deputy District Attorney Dan Akemon and prosecutor Garrett Dameron objected to the sentence being reduced.
The violence of the attacks earned Gargiulo the nickname the "Hollywood Ripper." During the trial, Akemon told jurors that Gargiulo targeted women in "frenzied knife attacks."
Gargiulo was eventually tracked down by police after he accidentally cut himself with a knife during his 2008 attack on Murphy. Akemon told jurors Gargiulo left a "blood trail."
Gargiulo is awaiting trial for a similar killing of Tricia Pacaccio in 1993 in Illinois.
Contributed reporting by City News Service.