Los Angeles Superior Court jury will determine whether Michael Gargiulo should be sentenced to death or life in prison after quickly agreeing on his mental state in time of murders.
- August 23, 2019
AceShowbiz - The man who stabbed and killed Ashton Kutcher's 2001 Grammys party date, Ashley Ellerin, could face the death penalty for his crimes after jurors in his murder case determined he's not insane.
Michael Gargiulo, aka the Hollywood Ripper, was found guilty of two counts of first degree murder last week (ends August 16), and now lawmakers have ruled he was sane when he killed two women in 2001 and 2005.
Kutcher testified in May, and revealed Ashley was supposed to be his date to a Grammys party, and when she never showed up he visited her home and spied what he thought was spilled red wine on the floor through a window when she didn't come to the door.
Ellerin's body was found in the house the next morning. She had been stabbed over 47 times.
Now an insanity claim is off the table, 43-year-old Gargiulo faces a possible death sentence.
The Los Angeles Superior Court jury was handed the sanity phase of the case on Wednesday afternoon, August 21 and quickly agreed the defendant was sane when he slayed Ashley Ellerin and Maria Bruno. He was also convicted of attempting to kill 26-year-old Michelle Murphy, who survived a knife attack in Santa Monica, California in April 2008.
The jurors will now be asked to decide whether or not Gargiulo should be sentenced to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
