SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A former police officer who eluded authorities for years as the Golden State Killer has arrived in state prison to begin serving multiple life sentences for rapes and murders that terrorized much of California in the 1970s and 1980s. Joseph James DeAngelo arrived at North Kern State Prison in the Central Valley on Tuesday. Officials at the reception center will decide his permanent prison destination based on his security, medical, psychiatric and program needs. The 74-year-old pleaded guilty in June to 13 murders and 13 rape-related charges that spanned much of California between 1975 and 1986. The plea deal spared him the death penalty.
Randall Benton/AP
FILE - In this Aug. 21, 2020, file photo, Joseph James DeAngelo apologizes to his victims and the families of the victims he killed more than four decades earlier during his sentencing hearing in Sacramento County Superior Court, held at the California State University campus in Sacramento, Calif. In November 2020, California voters will consider rolling back a host of criminal justice changes in what amounts to a referendum on whether the famously progressive state has become too lenient. Proposition 20 would amend criminal sentencing and supervision laws enacted during the administration of Gov. Jerry Brown that critics say are too favorable to criminals, while Proposition 25 could overturn a 2018 law that eliminates cash bail. The ballot measure would reinstate the list of crimes for which a perpetrator's DNA is collected, with proponents citing Golden State Killer DeAngelo's capture as a prime example of why a robust DNA database is important to crime-fighting. (AP Photo/Randall Benton, File)
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