SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California jury today recommended a death sentence for convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala, only hours after the 66-year-old pleaded for his life to be spared.
Alcala was convicted last month of murdering 12-year-old Robin Samsoe and four Los Angeles County women in the late 1970s. It was the third time he was sentenced to death in the Samsoe case. The previous sentences were overturned.
Relatives broke out in applause in the courtroom and Samsoe’s brother shouted out, “Yes!” when the jury’s recommendation was read.
Alcala gave his own closing arguments earlier this afternoon, telling jurors that if they recommend death instead of life in prison without parole, his case would be on appeal for another 15 to 20 years.
“But if you chose life in prison you will end the matter now,” he told the Orange County jury. “The families of the victims will have closure after 30 years.”
Robin Samsoe was kidnapped while riding a bicycle to ballet class on June 20, 1979. Her body was found 12 days later in the Angeles National Forest.
Alcala was arrested a month after Samsoe’s disappearance when his parole agent recognized him from a police sketch and called authorities. Alcala has been in custody ever since.
He was first tried in Samsoe’s murder in 1980. Prosecutors added the murders of the four women in 2006 after investigators discovered forensic evidence linking him to those crimes, including DNA found on three of the women, a bloody handprint and marker testing done on blood Alcala left on a towel in the fourth victim’s home.
The jury convicted Alcala of the murders on Feb. 25, and also found true special-circumstance allegations of rape, torture and kidnapping, making him eligible for the death penalty.
A defense psychiatrist testified during the trial penalty phase last week that Alcala suffers from a borderline personality disorder that could lead to psychotic episodes. Alcala has claimed he doesn’t remember some of his actions.
Prosecutor Matt Murphy called the defense psychiatrist’s diagnosis “garbage” and argued that Alcala, a one-time photographer and contestant on TV’s “The Dating Game,” was a remorseless predator who enjoyed killing and kept earrings and other trophies of his victims.
“He’s an evil monster who knows what he’s doing is wrong and doesn’t care,” Murphy told jurors today in asking them to recommend the death penalty.
Murphy also noted Alcala’s previous convictions for raping a 15-year-old in 1979 and an 8-year-old girl in 1968.
During closing arguments, Alcala played a piece of Arlo Guthrie’s 1967 song “Alice’s Restaurant,” in which the narrator tries to avoid being drafted for the Vietnam War by trying to convince a psychiatrist that he’s unfit for the military because of his supposed extreme desire to kill.
“I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth,” the song’s narrator sings. “Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean: kill, kill, kill, kill.”
Robin Samsoe’s brother, Robert Samsoe, stalked out of court as the song was played.
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