Ashton Kutcher is spotted in LA ahead of the trial of Hollywood Ripper 'serial killer' who 'mutilated his ex-girlfriend in 2001': Actor could be called to testify about blood stains he found at the scene he thought were 'red wine'
- Kutcher's girlfriend Ashley Ellerin was brutally murdered in her home in 2001
- He was meant to pick her up for a Grammy's party on the night she was killed
- Michael Gargiulo, 43, was arrested for a series of murders through the 2000s
- He is now going on trial and Kutcher has been named as a potential witness
- Gargiulo was an air conditioning unit repair man who became fixated on Ellern
- He is also accused of murdering a woman in Illinois in 1993 and another in 2005
Ashton Kutcher looked downcast as he stepped out just hours after it was revealed he could be called to testify in his ex-girlfriend's murder trial.
The Hollywood star, 41, looked gaunt and concerned as he parked his car in Beverly Hills on Wednesday.
Kutcher was snapped hours after he was named on a list of 200 potential witnesses in the trial of Michael Gargiulo.
Gargiulo, who has been nicknamed the 'Hollywood Ripper', has been charged with murdering three women - including Kutcher's ex-girlfriend Ashley Ellerin.
Ashton Kutcher was seen looking downcast just hours after it was revealed he could be called to testify in his ex-girlfriend's murder trial
Kutcher, 41, looked gaunt and concerned as he parked his car in Beverly Hills on Wednesday
The 22-year-old fashion student and model was found mutilated in her apartment in 2001.
Gargiulo, an air conditioning repair man, is said to have broken into her apartment on the night of February 21, 2001, and stabbed her to death.
Kutcher was meant to pick Ellerin up that night to take her to a Grammy's after-party, but no one answered when he arrived at the apartment.
The rising star, who at the time was on That 70s Show, looked through the window and saw what he thought was red wine spilled on the floor.
Kutcher later told police that he thought Ellerin wasn't answering the door because she was upset with him for being late. So he left.
Kutcher was snapped hours after he was named on a list of 200 potential witnesses in the trial of Michael Gargiulo (left), the man accused of murdering his ex Ashley Ellerin (right) in 2001
The next day Ellerin's roommate found her mutilated body in the apartment.
The stains Kutcher had thought were red wine was actually blood from the 47 gaping wounds - some up to six inches deep - inflicted on her neck, chest, stomach and back by a knife-wielding intruder who attacked her while she was taking a shower.
Kutcher, according to friends, had 'nightmares' about finding Ellerin's body for years.
Gargiulo, who has been nicknamed the 'Hollywood Ripper', has been charged with murdering three women - including Ellerin
Ellerin's friends were quick to point the finger at Gargiulo, who lived nearby and had done repair work on her apartment heater, according to CBS.
They told detectives that Gargiulo had been acting suspiciously, showing up at Ellerin's home at late hours and sitting outside in his pick-up truck.
But police could not come up with enough evidence to charge Gargiulo and her murder became an unsolved 'cold case.'
It was the same story four years later with the vicious killing of Maria Bruno, who had recently separated from her husband and moved into a Los Angeles apartment in the same complex where Garguilo lived.
On December 1, 2005, Bruno was butchered to death in her bed.
'It was unlike any other scene I had ever seen. The violence that was visited upon her was phenomenal,' said Mark Lillienfeld, who was the lead detective at the time of Bruno's murder.
Both Ellerin and Bruno's murders remained cold cases for years until cops got the breakthrough they were waiting for when, on April 28, 2008, Michelle Murphy woke up in bed in Santa Monica to find a man viciously stabbing her.
Her attacker plunged a knife into her body 17 times but, despite the terrible gashes to her chest, shoulder and right arm, Murphy courageously fought back.
Gargiulo allegedly left blood at Murphy's apartment and, just weeks later, he was arrested and charged with her attempted murder when DNA proved a match.
The same blood sample also allegedly matched DNA found at Ellerin and Bruno's homes.
Gargiulo has also been charged in the horrific murders of Maria Bruno, 32, (right) in 2005 and 18-year-old Tricia Pacaccio in 1993 (left)
Pacaccio's body is rolled out from her Chicago, Illinois home in 1993. Gargiulo was a friend of her two brothers
It also tied Gargiulo to the 1993 murder of 18-year-old Tricia Pacaccio, who was brutally stabbed to death on the porch outside of her home in Chicago.
Gargiulo was a close friend of Pacaccio's brother at the time and detectives had long suspected him in the murder. But they could never put together enough evidence to charge him with the teen's murder - until the attack on Murphy 15 years later.
Prosecutors have branded Gargiulo 'a serial, psycho-sexual thrill killer who engages in the systematic slaughter of beautiful women because he takes sexual pleasure from manipulating, stabbing and killing his victims'.
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In the almost 11 years since Murphy's attempted murder, Gargiulo has been behind bars as police and prosecutors carefully assembled the evidence they hope will convict him of two murders and one attempted murder.
Now, Gargiulo is finally facing trial. A jury was selected over the past few days and on Thursday prosecution and defense attorneys will give their opening statements.
Gargiulo is pleading not guilty to all charges.
Gargiulo has been behind bars for 11 years as police and prosecutors carefully assembled the evidence they hope will convict him of two murders and one attempted murder
