Former Los Angeles sanitation worker Lonnie Franklin Jr. is being convicted for 10 murders in the L.A. area, and is possibly facing execution reports, USA Today.
Franklin Jr. was dubbed the “Grim Sleeper” for a series of killings, which span over the last two decades. After a two-month trial, the case now falls into a penalty stage where jurors will hear accounts from two women who survived the attacks. Another victim who survived being shot in 1988 testified during the trail.
According to prosecutors, Franklin Jr. targeted women in the South Los Angeles area all within the span of 1985 to 2007, which encapsulates the crack cocaine epidemic. For the most part, the victims were all prostitutes or had cocaine in their system. In general, they were all strangled or fatally shot and left to never be discovered by authorities.
“He did it over, and over, and over, and over and over, and over,” Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman told jurors, according to CNN. “All of the murders in this case are first degree. They are all willful. They are all deliberate. They are all pre-meditated.”
Franklin’s last victim Janecia Peters, 25, was found shot to death in a plastic trashbag on Jan. 1, 2007. Since then, the killer has been called the “Grim Sleeper” because of the 14 years that had elapsed from his last murder.
Despite the evidence found against him, a defense lawyer said the killer was really a “mystery man”—still, the prosecutor found that defense to be fabricated.
The attacks were all linked to DNA testing or firearm evidence. Reportedly, police found a .25 caliber firearm, which was used in some of the murders. The jurors will be back in court on May 12 to determine if Franklin will get the death penalty.
Further details for this story are still pending.