Los Angeles — A jury recommended the death penalty on Friday for Michael Gargiulo, the so-called “Hollywood Ripper” and convicted of murdering two women, one of them an actress, model and friend of actor Ashton Kutcher, and injuring a third victim. Gargiulo, 43, faces capital punishment after being found guilty last August for the murder of 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin, Maria Bruno, 32, and attempting to kill Michelle Murphy, 26, in a series of attacks in Los Angeles between 2001 and 200 8.
At the sentencing hearing, prosecutor Garrett Dameron described Gargiulo as a “smart predator,” able to discern the rules of society and make it look like he lived within them, “even as he entered homes at night to threaten, mistreat and murder women.” Ellerin, the defendant’s first victim, was a friend of Kutcher’s and the night she was killed had met the actor to go to a party together. Last June, the actor stated in an audience that that February 22, 2001, she went to the young woman’s house in Hollywood and knocked on the door several times but she never answered. He assumed the woman was upset because he was late for the appointment.
Before leaving, Kutcher looked out a window and saw stains on the carpet that looked like spilled red wine to her, and paid no attention to her because one week there was a party at her friend’s house. Ellerin’s lifeless body was found the next morning with 47 stab wounds and virtually beheaded, according to the Prosecutor’s Office. Kutcher, known for her work on the TV comedies “That 70’s Show” and “Two and a Half Men,” she said that when she found out the fact spoke to the police as his fingerprints were on the door of the house. In December 2005, Gargiulo murdered Maria Bruno. The victim had 17 knife wounds and had her breast implants removed.
Michael Gargiulo, known as the “Hollywood Ripper,” was convicted on Thursday that he murdered two women, one of them an actress, model and friend of actor Ashton Kutcher, and wounding a third victim. pic.twitter.com/iVYEqocWe3 — Sumarium (@sumariumcom)
August 16, 2019
Years later, in April 2008, Michelle Murphy received the defendant eight stab wounds at her santa Monica home, but confronted the attacker, survived and became a key piece to arrest and charge Gargiulo.That same year she was arrested and then linked to the two other murders from DNA traces found on the victims.
Gargiulo’s defense alleges that the man suffers from psychological problems and tried to convince the jury to bow to life imprisonment. He claimed that it was inhumane to execute a person suffering from a mental illness. The violent nature of the attacks earned Gargiulo the nickname “Hollywood Ripper”. He will face a separate trial in Illinois for the August 1993 murder of Tricia Pacaccio, 18, and the sister of one of his friends.
