The trial of suspected serial killer Itzcoatl “Izzy” Ocampo likely will not begin until May 2014.
While the 25-year-old Yorba Linda man accused of fatally stabbing a mother, her adult son and four homeless men has a Nov. 1 court date, his attorneys asked an Orange County Superior Court judge today for more time to prepare an insanity defense. District Attorney Tony Rackauckas previously announced he will seek the death penalty for the honorably discharged Marine.
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Attorney Michael Molfetta, who'd filed the motion seeking more time, disclosed the probable May 2014 opening date to City News Service today, noting the judge agreed there is a “vast amount” of material to go over. Until then, Molfetta's client will remain in Orange County Jail without bail.
Raquel Estrada, 53, and her 34-year-old son, Juan Herrera, were stabbed to death on Oct. 25, 2011, in their Yorba Linda home that is not too far from where Ocampo lived with his family. But Ocampo's classmate, and Estrada's other adult son, was first arrested and jailed without bail for the murders of his mother and brother.
The first homeless victim was 53-year-old James McGillivray, who was stabbed to death as he slept outside a Placentia shopping center in the overnight hours of Dec. 20, 2011. Lloyd “Jim” Middaugh, 42, turned up on fatally stabbed on the Santa Ana River Trail in Anaheim eight days later. Paulus Cornelius “Dutch” Smit, 57, was found dead–another victim of stab wounds–in a stairwell behind the Yorba Linda library on Dec. 30, 2011.
By then, a multi-agency task force led by the Anaheim Police Department had been formed due to fears a serial killer preying on homeless men was on the loose. Cops and the public were thus on heightened alert when transient John Berry was stabbed to death Jan. 13, 2012, in a fairly public area of Anaheim. Civilians chased after the attacker, who fled into a nearby mobile home park as arriving police set up a perimeter. Ocampo was flushed out and arrested.
While Ocampo was in custody, Estrada's son was released from jail shortly before the DA made his announcement about seeking the death penalty. Rackauckas revealed Ocampo was also linked to the fatal stabbings of the mother and son.
OC Weekly's Itzcoatl “Izzy” Ocampo archives
Ocampo is charged with six counts of murder, along with the special-circumstance allegations of multiple murders and lying and wait.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.