Andrew Urdiales found guilty of 5 counts of first degree murder, special circumstance
A former Marine already serving time for three killings in Chicago was convicted today of murdering five women in Southern California, including victims in Palm Springs and Cathedral City.
Andrew Urdiales, 53, faces a possible death sentence for his Southern California killing spree, which stretched from 1986 to 1995 and also left women dead in Mission Viejo and San Diego.
“I imagined this day. I imagined the day they would convict him, but I didn’t think I would be here for it. I thought he was going to murder me,” said Jennifer Asbenson, the only known person to have escaped Uridales back in 1992.
Asbenson had accepted a ride from Urdiales, who drove her into the desert, bound her hands, and tortured her until she managed to somehow get away.
“I just ran down the road. My arms were free, I was just screaming and running and I turned around to see that he was chasing me down the road with a machete, but he was so far away I knew I was going to get away,” Asbenson said.
She is expected to tell her story in court Tuesday during the penalty phase. Jurors will decide whether to recommend the death penalty, a sentence Asbenson is hoping for, in order to bring justice to her and the other women whose lives were taken.
Urdiales was originally sentenced to death in Illinois for the murders of three prostitutes there, but he was re-sentenced to life in prison after capital punishment was outlawed in Illinois.
His trial in Santa Ana will now move to a penalty phase, when jurors will recommend if he should be sentenced to life in prison or death. Jurors found true the special circumstance allegation of lying in wait, making Urdiales eligible for the death penalty.
Urdiales’ attorneys claimed that childhood trauma and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder left him incapable of controlling his anger, meaning that Urdiales did not plan the murders before committing them. Instead, they argued for implied malice, which would lead to a second-degree murder conviction, which would make him ineligible for the death penalty.
Jurors began deliberating about 4 p.m. Thursday, but then got off to a late start Monday when a panelist had to be replaced. The jury began again at 11 a.m. Monday and reached verdicts about 3:30 Tuesday afternoon.
The former U.S. Marine was convicted of killing:
23-year-old Robbin Brandley as she walked to her car following a concert on Jan. 18, 1986, at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo; 29-year-old Julie McGhee on July 17, 1988, in Cathedral City; 31-year-old Maryann Wells on Sept. 25, 1988, in San Diego; 20-year-old Tammie Erwin on April 16, 1989, in Palm Springs; and 32-year-old Denise Maney on March 11, 1995, in Palm Springs.
