Joseph James DeAngelo appeared in Sacramento Superior Court today (Thursday, December 6th, 2018) before Judge Michael Sweet at 1:30 PM local time.
The primary purpose of today’s hearing was a progress check and an attempt to resolve the issue of whether DeAngelo should have to hire a private defense attorney or whether he’d continue to work with the public defenders that had been assigned to him back in April 2018. This discussion came on the heels of several meetings held a few days prior, including discussion and estimation by the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors that the county-funded prosecution and defense of DeAngelo could cost $20 million or higher. It’s unknown at this point if funds from other counties, the state, or if federal funds will be made available to this case. Several other counties brought charges against DeAngelo, and the FBI helped investigate the case from 2016 to 2018, so it’s possible that other jurisdictions will help shoulder the financial burden.
Judge Sweet reviewed some of the arguments and details related to what DeAngelo’s financial responsibility to the court should be, and he ruled that DeAngelo may keep his public defenders. Depending on how the proceedings play out, DeAngelo may have to reimburse the court at a later date, and it’s been noted before that his personal assets may be at stake in civil matters or in other future actions.
Judge Sweet also addressed previous requests by the defense to ban media coverage of the trial. The judge noted that there’s national and international interest in this case, and that he didn’t believe that media coverage would affect DeAngelo’s right to a fair trial.
Another open issue is the defense’s prior objection to capital punishment. That issue wasn’t discussed at this hearing.
The compilation and delivery of discovery documents to the defense team is an ongoing process. DeAngelo’s next court date has been scheduled for April 10th, 2019 — nearly one year after his arrest.
I don’t understand why he is provided free defense attorney’s (public defender) when he has
a house, a boat, a car, a motorcycle, and a retirement pension.
There are plenty of people who have those things and are required to pay for their own defense in
a criminal trial.
The local and state government are calculating the cost of trial at up to 20 million, but thats a classic
government response and not anything near what the situation is. The man won’t survive long, really, simply due to his age and his obvious reaction (weight loss is severe) to being in jail without any hope of being released before he dies.
Having just read Michelle McNamara’s book
your site seems the obvious place to ask the question.
Did DeAngelo ever appear on the radar of any of the professional or amateur investigators over the decades?
well said.
Very interesting. Hope to see a verdict before the sicko dies.
This monster has commited horrific acts and at the same time had died many years ago. I cannot not believe something horrific overtook his young exisitence, something so dark and disturbing that molded his evil-sickness.