A Los Angeles jury on Thursday convicted the man accused in the”Grim Sleeper” serial killings that began decades ago and left at least nine women and a teenager dead.
Lonnie Franklin Jr., 63, who pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, could face the death penalty, the Associated Press reported.
For more than 20 years, near his south Los Angeles home, Franklin preyed on numerous young, black women – many struggling to make it. It was a tough time in L.A., where areas were known for hard times. Many turned to drugs and traded sex to pay. Some worked as prostitutes.
Police said Franklin, a former garbage collector and one-time mechanic for the LAPD, initiated sexual contact with women, then shot or strangled them and dumped their bodies.
“They suffered from the same frailties and the same imperfections that all humans do, and they had the same hopes and the same dreams for their futures that we all have,” prosecutor Beth Silverman said during closing arguments, the Los Angeles Times reported. “None of them deserved to be brutally dumped like trash as if their lives had no meaning.”
Authorities dubbed the suspect as the “Grim Sleeper,” a reference to the more than decade-long break between the two periods of killings.
Franklin’s trial last nearly three months. Defense attorney Seymour Amster questioned the DNA and ballistics evidence against his client and said the real killer was a “mystery man,” AP reported.
“It is our position that there is a nephew, or a youngster, who is involved and did each and every murder,” Amster said while not naming a suspect, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The 12-member jury began deliberations Wednesday morning and had reached a verdict by the following day.
Seven women were killed between 1985 and 1988: Debra Jackson, Henrietta Wright, Barbara Ware, Bernita Sparks, Mary Lowe, Lachrica Jefferson and Alicia Alexander. Three more were killed between 2002 and 2007: Valerie McCorvey, Janecia Peters and 15-year-old Princess Berthomieux.
Thomas Steele was found dead in 1986; Franklin wasn’t charged with his death, but authorities believe it’s connected to the others, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The lone known “Grim Sleeper” survivor, Enietra Washington, testified at Franklin’s trial. Now 57, she recounted a November 1988 incident, saying Franklin had offered her a ride, and then shot her, sexually assaulted her and snapped a photo of her before he pushed her out of his Pinto and left her to die.
In the 2000s, police investigators began digging into the city’s cold cases, using DNA evidence from hair and skin to find answers. Then they turned their attention to a serial killer many had been calling the Grim Sleeper.
Over the years, authorities collected DNA samples from state prisoners and filed them in a law enforcement DNA database. Franklin’s DNA, however, did not match samples in the system.
The Los Angeles Times reported in 2014 that police urged the state to look for DNA matches that could be related to the killer, and then-California Attorney General Jerry Brown agreed to familial searches.
Los Angeles police investigators got one DNA match: Franklin’s son, Christopher Franklin, who had been arrested on firearm and drug-related charges. But police still needed to confirm that Lonnie Franklin Jr. was the suspect.
An undercover officer followed him to a local pizza parlor, where he was attending a birthday party, and posed as a busboy to collect dishes Franklin had eaten from. In the end, police said, it was an uneaten pizza crust, a napkin and a drinking glass that gave him away, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Franklin was arrested in 2010.
Proceedings were slow to start, frustrating victims’ families; a year ago, some of them cited Marsy’s Law, California legislation that gives crime victims and their families the right to a speedy trial, according to the Los Angeles Times.
(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Elahe Izadi, Lindsey Bever
