Golden State Killer's ex-fiancee Bonnie - whose name he screamed during rapes after she dumped him as a teen - stares him down in court and says through her friend: 'Even a gun pointed at my face could not make me choose you'
The Golden State Killer on Wednesday came face to face with the ex-fiancee who whose name he shouted during rapes after she dumped him as a teen.
Bonnie Ueltzen was in court to hear day two of Joseph DeAngelo's sentencing hearing, four decades after he committed 13 known murders and dozens of rapes that spanned much of California.
DeAngelo, 74, in June pleaded guilty to all 13 counts of murder, 13 counts of kidnapping, and confessed to 161 uncharged crimes - many of which were rapes - which go back beyond the statute of limitations.
Ueltzen, who was engaged to DeAngelo in the early 1970s before breaking it off, was not allowed to speak to the court as she is not listed as a victim of his crimes but she joined rape victim Jane Carson-Sandler.
Bonnie Ueltzen, right, who was engaged to DeAngelo in the early 1970s before breaking it off, was not allowed to speak to the court but she joined rape victim Jane Carson-Sandler, left
Introducing Ueltzen, Carson-Sandler said: 'I also want to especially thank a friend who is accompanying me here today. That friend is Bonnie.
'If Bonnie were able to speak Joe, she would want you to know Joe that as just a teenager 50 years ago she broke her engagement to you when she realized that you had become manipulative and abusive.
'Even a gun pointed at her face could not make her choose you.'
Standing in the front row, Bonnie removed her face mask so DeAngelo could see her face and looked him in the eye.
Joseph James DeAngelo came face to face with the ex fiancee who whose name he shouted during rapes after she dumped him as a teen on the second day of victim impact statements
During the testimony, the killer sat in an orange jail jumpsuit, staring straight ahead and wearing a mask as protection against the coronavirus.
Ueltzen — then Bonnie Jean Colwell — was engaged to DeAngelo in the early 1970s but she broke it off and both went on to marry other people.
But she clearly preyed on his mind. During at least one of his series of attacks, the killer lay down next to his victim after raping her and sobbed: 'I hate you. I hate you. I hate you, Bonnie.'
Jane Carson-Sandler confronts Joseph James DeAngelo during the second day of victim impact statements at the Gordon D. Schaber Sacramento County Courthouse on Wednesday
All told, he admitted harming 87 victims at 53 separate crime scenes spanning 11 California counties in a plea deal that spares him the death penalty, prosecutors said.
His sentencing, expected Friday after three days of testimony from his victims and survivors, brings to an end a sinister, decades-long saga of kidnappings, rapes and murders.
Carson-Sandler told the court Wednesday: 'DeAngelo, I want you to look at me...and I want you to remember what I say.
'You didn't destroy my life in your cowardly, cruel and sick behavior.
'One quarter of me, being a Christian, I want to say to you, 'May God have mercy on your soul,. Then there is another three-quarters of me that want to say to you, 'Buddy, just rot in hell.''
DeAngelo, 74, in June pleaded guilty to all 13 counts of murder, 13 counts of kidnapping, and confessed to 161 uncharged crimes - many of which were rapes - which go back beyond the statute of limitations
During the testimony, the killer sat in an orange jail jumpsuit, staring straight ahead and wearing a mask as protection against the coronavirus
Years before DeAngelo is suspected of starting his reign of terror, he met Bonnie Colwell when they were both students at Sierra College in Rocklin, California, 20 miles from Sacramento.
'We always thought there was a Bonnie significant in his life, it could be a mother, a wife, a girlfriend, a childhood crush,' Paul Holes, an investigator who has been looking into the case for years, told The Mercury News.
'Most certainly if he's making the statement, 'I hate you, Bonnie,' while he's attacking another female, he is what we call an anger retaliatory rapist. Instead of directing his anger at what's making him angry, he's directing it sideways on to someone else to be able to satisfy that anger,' Holes said.
The couple never married. Instead, DeAngelo would marry Sharon Huddle in 1973. They eventually had three children, but the couple would separate sometime in the 1990s.
Many victims have said they thought their opportunity would never come as the former police officer seemingly vanished after each crime, confounding investigators until he was arrested in 2018 by using a new form of DNA tracing.
Others planned to tell Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman on Wednesday and Thursday how DeAngelo's crimes changed their lives.
Gay Hardwick, left, is comforted by her spouse Bob Hardwick, center, and San Joaquin County's District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar during the second day of victim impact statements with Joseph James DeAngelo present
Rape victim Gay Hardwick said Wednesday: 'I've heard that he may have been abused as a child, that he experienced sad things in his life, that he had to move around a lot, that his fiancee jilted him.
'But a lot of people go through bad times, and they don't become serial rapists and murderers.'
The only time DeAngelo looked down Wednesday was during testimony from his youngest victim, Mary Berwert, who was 13 when he raped her.
Judge Bowman will sentence DeAngelo to life in prison on Friday under a plea agreement that allows DeAngelo to avoid the death penalty.
In June, DeAngelo pleaded guilty to 13 murders and 13 rape-related charges between 1975 and 1986. He also publicly admitted dozens more sexual assaults for which the statute of limitations had expired.
'He truly is an evil monster with no soul,' Patti Cosper, the daughter of rape survivor Patricia Murphy, read from her mother's statement.
DeAngelo as a police officer for Exeter Police Department, in the early 70s
Lisa Lilienthal described DeAngelo as a sadistic 'boogeyman' as she testified by video about the attack she witnessed on her mother.
DeAngelo's nicknames illustrated the sweep of his crimes: the Visalia Ransacker, thought to be responsible for about 100 burglaries and one slaying in the San Joaquin Valley farm town; the East Area Rapist; the Original Night Stalker; and finally, the Golden State Killer when investigators finally linked the crimes that stretched across much of the state.
The family of Debbie Strauss, who died in 2016, recounted what became the signature that marked DeAngelo's crimes after he escalated to attacking couples instead of single women and girls.
He would force his victims to bind themselves with shoelaces then balance plates on the man's back with a warning that he would kill both victims if he heard the plates rattle while he raped the woman.
'He spent hours raining his terror through threats and unspeakable abuse. He would leave his victims shaking in fright while he went to the kitchen to eat, only to return and then the abuse and vileness started all over again,' said Strauss' mother, Dolly Kreis.
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