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L.A.'s "Most Prolific Serial Killer" Will Be Charged for Murders of 4 More Women
Chester Turner
Chester Turner has been dubbed L.A.'s "most prolific serial killer," for taking the lives of 10 women, and is currently sitting on California's death row. Now Turner, 44, will be charged with four additional counts of murder, for killings that took place in the same time frame and in the same vicinity of most of his other murders.Nine of the ten victims were murdered within a four-block-wide corridor that ran on either side of Figueroa Street between Gage Avenue and 108th Street. The killings took place between 1987 and 1998. One of Turner's victims had been pregnant, and though the fetus did not survive, it was not far along enough to be considered a victim under state law.
These four new charges are for murders tied to Turner, a former Domino's pizza deliveryman, that also took place in this same corridor. Turner's recurrent m.o. was to strangle his victims to death and leave their nude bodies at the scene. When convicted in 2002 for a sexual assault, Turner submitted his DNA. Database matching connected Turner to nine murders; he was convicted in 2007.
"The murder charges include the special-circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder during the commission of a rape or attempted rape of all four victims, which makes Turner eligible for the death penalty," explains the AP. "Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to pursue the death penalty again."
Arraignment on these new charges is set to take place today.
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