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The legal team of accused ‘Hollywood Ripper’ Michael Gargiulo have pointed the finger at another man as the possible killer of TV star Ashton Kutcher’s girlfriend, Ashley Ellerin.

Gargiulo's attorney Dan Nardoni suggested that the manager of Ellerin’s apartment building, Mark Durbin - who he said had sex with Ashley before she was murdered and also had a key to her apartment - could have been the killer who stabbed her 47 times the night of February 21 2001.

During closing arguments at his murder trial Wednesday, Nardoni told the court: ‘Mark Durbin says he went to Ashley’s apartment at about 7pm with the intention of having sex with her.'

Gargiulo, 43, has pleaded not guilty to the brutal 2001 killing of TV star Kutcher’s then girlfriend Ellerin, 22 - whose head was almost severed from her body at her Hollywood home - and slashing to death LA mother-of-four Maria Bruno, 32, whose breasts were cut off in the vicious 2005 attack.

The legal team of accused ‘Hollywood Ripper’ Michael Gargiulo, (pictured), have pointed the finger at another man as the possible killer of TV star Ashton Kutcher’s girlfriend, Ashley Ellerin.

One of Gargiulo's alleged victims is Ashley Ellerin who was fatally stabbed aged 22 in her Hollywood home in 2001. She was meant to go on a date with Ashton Kutcher at the time of her death

Nardoni added that Durbin was still in Ashley’s apartment when she later took a shower and also when she took a phone call at 8.24pm from Kutcher who rang her to say he was running late for the date they had planned that night.

Nardoni told the court Durbin was also still in Ashley’s apartment when a neighbor, Todd Jackson, was walking his dog nearby at around 8.35-8.30pm, and heard two screams from a woman. The lawyer asked the jury, ‘What do you think?.’

Gargiulo, a former heating and air-conditioning repairman, also denies the 2008 attempted murder in Santa Monica of Michelle Murphy, 26. She was stabbed multiple times, bravely fought off and survived the attack…and became a star witness in Gargiulo’s trial. 

His lawyer also told the jury at Los Angeles Superior Court that the other murder victim, Maria Bruno, could have been killed by her estranged husband, not Gargiulo.

Gargiulo was dressed in light purple shirt, dark pants and wearing glasses and watched proceedings from the defense’s table.   

After leaving Ashley’s apartment, Durbin went home and showered, then took out the trash, he continued.

The next day, after Ellerin’s murder, detectives interviewed Durbin, but the trash had already been taken away.

In addition, the court heard, during their interview of Durbin, detectives noticed a ‘fresh scratch’ on his right forearm and when they talked to Ashley’s room-mate, she told them Durbin had a ‘dark side'.

Nardoni also noted that Durbin had a key to Ashley’s apartment which had no signs of being broken into that night.

He told the jury that neither Todd Jackson nor any other eye witnesses saw Gargiulo enter or leave Allerin’s apartment the night of February 21 2001.

Nor did crime scene forensics specialists find any physical evidence that Gargiulo was at the scene of the murder - no fingerprints, no DNA, no hair follicles.

Michael Gargiulo is seen in court with his lawyer Daniel Nardoni for opening statements in his murder trial in Los Angeles in May, 2019 

Gargiulo listens as Ashton Kutcher testifies during Gargiulo's murder trial in May 

Mark Durbin was the last person to see Ashley Ellen alive, said Nardoni who told the jury that they should find Gargiulo not guilty of murdering her ‘if evidence has been established that some person other than the defendant may have been involved’ in the killing.

Nardoni took a similar tack in the Maria Bruno murder case, this time that it was Bruno’s estranged husband Irving who could be the culprit who viciously butchered Maria at her apartment in El Monte, east of LA, the night of December 1 2005.

’This was a fractured marriage - Maria was a victim of domestic violence at the hands of her husband during their nine years together,’ said Nardoni.

He noted that at the time of her killing, Maria had left her husband and moved in to her own at her El Monte apartment, where Gargiulo lived upstairs in the same complex, and where she told the manager that she was ‘concerned and in fear’ of her husband

On one occasion in October 2015, ‘Irving Bruno grabbed her out of her car, threw her to the ground and punched her in the face,’ the court heard.

He later told cops that he had been drinking and sometimes he ‘blacked out’ when he drank alcohol.

Gargiulo was roaming free until 2008 when he allegedly attacked Michelle Murphy, who fought him off and survived after she was stabbed 17 times

Gargiulo denies the 2008 attempted murder in Santa Monica of Michelle Murphy, 26, who, though stabbed multiple times, bravely fought off and survived the attack

 Irving went to visit his estranged wife on the night she died, said Nardoni, and the next day, when he was asked by Detective Mark Lillienfeld if he had stabbed Maria to death, Irving responded, ‘Maybe I blacked out, I have had blackouts.’

Noting that Maria’s blood was found in Irving’s car, Nardoni showed a gruesome photograph of Maria’s mutilated body and said that her killer, ‘stabbed her, cutting off her breasts, pulling out her implants and saying, "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you". Whoever did this made it personal.’

Again, neither Gargiulo’s fingerprints, nor his DNA was found at the Maria Bruno murder scene and no eye witnesses placed him at the scene said Nardoni who urged the jury to find Gargiulo not guilty. 

While there is ‘absolutely no evidence’ that Gargiulo was at the scene of the Ellerin or Bruno murders, the attempted killing of Michelle Murphy at her Santa Monica apartment on April 28 2008 is ‘a different story,’ Gargiulo’s other attorney, Dale Rubin, admitted in court Wednesday.

Gargiulo’s defense team hired forensic psychologist Dr. Vianne Castellano to evaluate his mental state and after establishing that he had an ‘abusive and traumatic childhood.

he diagnosed him with DID, Disassociative Identity Disorder, otherwise known as multiple personality disorder, which has been used in past cases to try for a verdict of not guilty by reasons of insanity.

Michael Gargiulo is accused of killing Maria Bruno, (pictured), in 2005 in El Monte, California

Michael Gargiulo's attorney Dan Nardoni addresses the jury during closing arguments in the trial on August 7 in Los Angeles 

‘Michelle Murphy is the only count where the prosecution has shown that Michael Gargiulo was in her apartment and attacked her,’ Rubin told the jury.

’She went through a terrible experience. She is fighting him…He cuts himself and suddenly he stood up, looks around, says, "I’m sorry, I’m sorry," and runs out.

‘This is an individual who just came to. He had no idea where he was or what he was doing because he was in a dissociative state.’

Rubin added that as a sufferer of DID, Gargiulo, ‘has no clue... He has no idea where he is. He is a little kid back fighting monsters in his family home.’

In addition to extensive jailhouse interviews with Gargiulo, Dr. Castellano went to Chicago to talk to members of his family, the court heard, but she was unable to persuade any of them to come to LA to testify at his trial.

‘They didn’t want to tell you the trauma they inflicted on Mr. Gargiulo as a child,’ said Rubin.

During his closing arguments on Tuesday, assistant District Attorney Garrett Dameron criticized Dr. Castellano’s DID diagnosis of Gargiulo, saying she was ‘bought and paid for’ and claiming she was paid $300,000 for her services

The prosecutions’ own forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Schug - who did not diagnose Gargiulo with DID - was paid a fee of just $1,500 forms expert testimony.

Dr. Schug completely disagreed with his rival shrink’s diagnosis, said Dameron.

‘Dr. Schug found that the only thing Michael Gargiulo suffers from is anti personality disorder… which actually enhances his ability to commit crimes.’

Dameron told the court that while Castellano reached her diagnosis after only interviewing Gargiulo himself in jail for many hours and his family in Chicago, Dr. Schug talked to many different people.

This included a woman who claimed she had been raped by Gargiulo, another who said she was attacked by him and a third who claimed she had been threatened by him.

‘Dr. Castellano wants you to believe that Michael Gargiulo is the victim here,’ he added. ‘He is not the victim, he is the victimizer.’

Defense lawyer Rubin hit back Wednesday saying that Judge Larry Fidler, presiding in the murder trial, had approved and signed off on Dr. Castellano’s fees.

He added: ‘The district attorney got someone to do this (Dr. Schug’s evaluation of Gargiulo) for $1,500, but he’s someone with only a couple of years experience.

'Dr. Castellano has been doing her job for 40 years and she is well respected by psychologists and lawyers alike.