A man known as the “Hollywood Ripper” was sentenced to death Friday for the gruesome killings of two women in their homes in the early 2000s.
Michael Gargiulo, 45, was convicted in 2019 of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.
Among his victims was 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin, who was found in her Hollywood home with 47 stab wounds in February 2001. On the night of her murder, Ellerin had been due to go on a date with actor Ashton Kutcher, who testified at the trial.
The second murder victim was Maria Bruno, a 32-year-old mother of four and neighbor of Gargiulo who was attacked in her sleep in December 2005 and “quite literally butchered,” prosecutors said.
“In this case, everywhere that Mr. Gargiulo went, death and destruction followed,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler said Friday as he announced the sentence.
Prosecutor Dan Akemon said Gargiulo targeted women who lived near him and waited for the perfect opportunity to attack them at night in or near their homes in “totally planned killings.”
Gargiulo again insisted he was innocent at Friday’s sentencing session.