A convicted murderer nicknamed the “Hollywood Ripper” has been sentenced to death for the killings of two women in the 2000s, reported BBC
Relatives of his victims wept as a judge gave Michael Gargiulo the sentence in Los Angeles on Friday.
Ashley Ellerin, 22, and Maria Bruno, 32, were both stabbed to death in their California homes.
Gargiulo was caught after another potential victim, Michelle Murphy, then 26, managed to fight him off.
He fled the scene but left some blood behind – enabling police to track him down.
At Friday’s sentencing, Ms. Murphy broke down, telling the court how “spending the night alone creates a world of fear in me” more than a decade later.
Gargiulo was convicted of two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in 2019, but continues to insist he is innocent.
He is now expected to stand trial in Illinois, where he faces a separate murder charge over the killing of an 18-year-old woman in 1993.
The California murders attracted global attention because one of the victims, Ellerin, was about to go on a date with American actor Ashton Kutcher on the night she was killed in February 2001.
