A 43-year-old man was found guilty of the brutal slayings of two women and trying to kill another woman over a seven-year period, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced.
Jurors deliberated for more than three days before finding Michael Gargiulo, 43, guilty of two counts of first-degree murder with the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and lying in wait, making him eligible for the death penalty. He also was convicted of one count of attempted murder and attempted escape.
The sanity phase of the trial is expected to begin Aug. 20.
In February 2001, Gargiulo broke into the Hollywood Hills home of 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin and killed her by repeatedly stabbing her. According to People, Ashton Kutcher ‘had plans to go on a date with him the night she was murdered. Kutcher testified at Gargiulo’s trial that he showed up to Ellerin’s house house that night but she didn’t answer the door, and that Kutcher, not knowing she’d been killed, assumed she had stood him up.’
Gargiulo also murdered and mutilated his 32-year-old neighbor Maria Bruno while she was asleep in December 2005. Both had lived in an apartment complex in El Monte, prosecutors said.
Three years later, the defendant attacked Michelle Murphy, 26, in her Santa Monica home and stabbed her. She fought off Gargiulo who was her neighbor and was cut during the struggle. DNA evidence and details of that attack connected him to all three crimes, prosecutors said.
Gargiulo also has been charged in the 1993 slaying of Tricia Pacaccio, 18, in the Chicago area. Prosecutors were able to present details about the murder as supporting evidence during the trial.
