'Boy Next Door Killer' to get death penalty or life sentence
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Nearly two years after a jury recommended execution for a man prosecutors called "The Boy Next Door Killer," a judge is set to hand down a sentence Friday.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry P. Fidler will choose between a death sentence and life in prison without the possibility of parole for Michael Thomas Gargiulo, 45, who was convicted in August 2019 of the home-invasion murders of two women and the attempted murder of a third.
His case received added attention because one of his victims was about to go on a date with actor Ashton Kutcher, who testified at the trial.
A jury recommended his execution in October 2019, but the pandemic and procedural issues forced several delays in his sentencing.
He's also facing a future trial for a 1997 killing in his Illinois hometown. Prosecutors in his California trial were allowed to present extensive evidence from that case as they sought to establish a pattern and present Gargiulo as a serial killer.
Gargiulo is a former air conditioner and heater repairman, bouncer and aspiring actor whose nicknames from media outlets included "The Chiller Killer" and "The Hollywood Ripper" but was called "The Boy Next Door Killer" by prosecutors because he lived near his victims.
FILE - In this May 29, 2019, file photo, Michael Gargiulo listens to the testimony of actor Ashton Kutcher during Gargiulo's murder trial at Los Angeles Superior Court. Gargiulo has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and an attempted-murder charge stemming from attacks in the Los Angeles area between 2001 and 2008, including the death of Kutcher's former girlfriend, 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin. A judge is expected to give a death sentence Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool, File)
He was found guilty of the 2001 murder of Ashley Ellerin in her Hollywood home as she prepared to go out with Kutcher. At the trial, Kutcher said that he was late to pick up Ellerin, who did not answer her door. He looked inside to see blood stains that he thought were spilled wine. He testified that he briefly feared he would be a suspect in the case as one of the last to communicate with Ellerin.
Prosecutors used him in their closing arguments, suggesting Ellerin was killed by another man who was jealous of Kutcher.
Gargiulo was also convicted of killing Maria Bruno in her home in El Monte in 2005, and of the attempted murder in 2008 of Michelle Murphy, who fought him off in her Santa Monica apartment, forcing him to flee and leave a trail of blood that also led to his eventual arrests for the other two killings. Murphy would be a key witness at the trial.
Even if he is given a death sentence, Gargiulo is unlikely to be put to death anytime soon. California has not executed anyone since 2006 and Gov. Gavin Newsom has halted executions for as long as he is in office. But courts have been proceeding on the assumption that executions may one day resume.
FILE - In this May 29, 2019, file photo, Michael Gargiulo, sitting, listens to the testimony of Ashton Kutcher during Gargiulo's murder trial at Los Angeles Superior Court. Gargiulo has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and an attempted-murder charge stemming from attacks in the Los Angeles area between 2001 and 2008, including the death of Kutcher's former girlfriend, 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool, File)
FILE - In this June 20, 2019, file photo, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Dan Akemon, left, and detective Tom Small look at the view from rooms involved in the murder trial of Michael Gargiulo at an apartment complex as jurors visit the scene in El Monte, Calif. In 2001, Gargiulo allegedly stabbed to death 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin, an acquaintance of actor Ashton Kutcher. Kutcher testified that he went to pick up the model for a drink but that she did not answer the door. Her body was found the next day in her Hollywood Hills home. (Frederic J. Brown/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 15, 2019, file photo, Judge Larry P. Fidler presides as Michael Gargiulo listens as his guilty verdicts on all counts are read in Los Angeles Superior Court. Gargiulo was charged with the murder of 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin in her Hollywood home in 2001, on a night when she was supposed to have drinks with actor Ashton Kutcher, who testified at the trial. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool, File)
