Trial for accused Coachella Valley serial killer begins
With a hunting knife in his hand, a then-Camp Pendleton Marine began a spree of eight murders in 1986 when he clambered down a hill at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo and stabbed a female student 41 times, a prosecutor told jurors today.
But an attorney for 53-year-old Andrew Urdiales told the jury his client is the product of a tortured childhood that included regular beatings, first from his parents and later from bullies who would torment him daily.
Urdiales was already convicted of murdering three prostitutes in Illinois and is accused of killing five women in Orange, San Diego and Riverside counties between 1986 and 1995.
In his opening statement, Senior Deputy District Attorney Eric Scarbrough told jurors Urdiales began his killing spree Jan. 18, 1986, when he stalked and killed Robbin Brandley, 23, who was walking to her car following a concert she worked as an usher at Saddleback College.
Urdiales told investigators he chose Saddleback College to search for a victim because he would often see the sign while driving down the San Diego (5) Freeway, the prosecutor said.
As he repeatedly stabbed her, Urdiales turned Brandley over so he could stare at her face as he killed her, telling investigators he thought,
“There’s nothing else in the world — just me and her,” Scarbrough said.
When pressed on why he chose Brandley, Urdiales said, “You’re right. I guess it could have been anybody. And that’s the reason Robbin Brandley had to die,” according to the prosecutor.
As with all of his alleged victims, Urdiales vividly recalled details of the clothes the womenwore when they were killed, Scarbrough said. Even a decade later, Urdiales recalled Brandley wore a floral-pattern dress, the prosecutor said.
In addition to Brandley, Urdiales is accused of killing:
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.
McGhee, Wells, Erwin and Maney were all prostitutes, according to prosecutors.
Urdiales allegedly picked up McGhee in Indian Wells then drove her to a remote area of Cathedral City, had sex with her then and shot her in the head. He allegedly paid Wells $40, then drove her to a deserted San Diego industrial complex where he had sex with her, shot her in the head and took back the $40 he had paid her. Prosecutors contend he left a condom at the scene, and his DNA was found on it.
Urdiales picked up Erwin, drove her to a remote area of Palm Springs, had sex with her then shot her three times, prosecutors said.
While vacationing in Palm Springs in 1995 following a move to Chicago, he allegedly picked up Maney, drove her to a remote area, tied her hands behind her back, had sex with her and stabbed her to death.
Urdiales remained at large until 1996, when he was pulled over in Hammond, Indiana, with a gun in his car, leading him to admit to a misdemeanor charge. At the time, Chicago police were investigating the killings of three prostitutes.
When Urdiales was later arrested for fighting with a prostitute he planned to take to Wolf Lake — the scene of one of the three unsolved killings — Chicago police tested the gun found in Hammond and linked it to the murders.
Chicago police arrested him as he was walking to his job as a security guard, Scarbrough said.
When Urdiales was told tests linked his gun to the killings, the defendant confessed, Scarbrough said.
“The defendant sighs, takes off his security badge and pulls the laces out of his shoes and puts them on the table,” Scarbrough said. Urdiales told Chicago police to call law enforcement in California about murders there, the prosecutor added.
In his opening statement, defense attorney Ken Morrison appeared to lay the groundwork for efforts to keep his client off death row, describing a nightmarish childhood that began in utero when Urdiales’ mother drank booze during her pregnancy, afflicting him with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Then came repeated beatings with the slightest provocations at the hands of his parents, Morrison said.
Two of his sisters were molested by relatives, and his oldest brother, who was a teen when Urdiales was born, died at 17 shortly after he enlisted in the military and was shipped to Vietnam.
The death of her son during the war plummeted Urdiales’ mother into a deep depression that left her even more detached from her other children, Morrison said.
When the family moved in hopes of helping Urdiales’ mother put the painful memories behind her, they ended up in a predominantly white community that frequently targeted the family with racist attacks such as eggings and the smearing of feces on the family car, Morrison said.
Urdiales was subjected to “daily beatings” from bullies, and he did not have the capacity to fight back. He grew angry and developed symptoms of Tourette’s Syndrome, Morrison said.
Urdiales eventually enlisted in the Marines as a young man and served two three-year tours before being honorably discharged following non-combat service during Desert Storm in Iraq, Morrison said.
Urdiales faces the death penalty if he is convicted. Urdiales had previously been on Illinois’ death row for killing the three prostitutes in Chicago, but capital punishment was banned in that state.
Prosecutors contend that Urdiales committed four of the Southern California murders while serving as a Marine at various facilities.
Urdiales was discharged in 1991 and he moved back to his home state of Illinois. The fifth Southland murder, which happened in Palm Springs, allegedly was committed by Urdiales while he was on vacation, prosecutors said.
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