Accused Orange County serial killer
Itzcoatl Ocampo appeared at his arraignment this morning but entered no plea to charges that could bring the death penalty as the hearing was postponed until Feb. 17. Given the amount of media heat generated, it's difficult to fathom anything new coming from the case against the 23-year-old former Marine accused of murdering four homeless men in what prosecutors call "a serial
thrill-kill spree." But at a news conference Tuesday, District Attorney
Tony Rackauckas and law enforcement authorities provided the following 10 revelations . . .
Glimpse of the murder weapon: A witness to Friday night's killing of John Berry recalled seeing a man fleeing from the scene with a large knife. Here it is, according to the DA: a Ka-bar Bull Dozer, which is a single-edge, seven-inch blade made of a heavy gauge material that can slice through bone without chipping or breaking.
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| Courtesy of Anaheim Police Department |
| Image captured from surveillance video shows the killer standing nex to the body of James McGillivray. |
The shear number of stab wounds: James McGillivray was stabbed more than 40 times--before, during and after the time he was rustled awake--at a Placentia retail center Dec. 20. Lloyd "Jimmy" Middaugh was stabbed more than 50 times on
the Santa Ana River Trail under the 91 Freeway underpass in Anaheim on Dec. 27. Paulus
Cornelius "Dutch" Smit was stabbed more than 60 times at the Yorba Linda Public Library on Dec. 30.
Dutch Smit only recently became homeless. When the home Smit had been living
in was deemed uninhabitable by code enforcement, he was forced onto the streets.
The LA Times contributes to final victim's murder. Inadvertently, of course. In its coverage of the law enforcement response to a serial killer on the loose,
Times photographer Allen J. Schaben snapped Anaheim Police Sgt. Mike Lynch talking with John Berry. "We believe that the evidence will show that the defendant specifically sought this victim out for participating in this article," Rackauckas said Tuesday. "The defendant relished the media attention of the crime, and he stalked the victim until he got his prey." Ironically, 64-year-old Berry informed friends and police before he was murdered that he thought the then-wanted serial killer was stalking him.
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