19 June 2018 :

Orange County Jury recommends death penalty for Andrew Urdiales, 54, Hispanic, who killed 5 women. A jury on Tuesday recommended the death penalty for a serial killer on trial for murdering 5 women in Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties. An Orange County Superior Court judge will make the final decision as to whether Urdiales will be sent to death row. The sentencing hearing is set for Aug. 31. The jury recommended the death penalty for all 5 murders. Urdiales, shortly after his arrest, confessed to killing 1 woman in Orange County while stationed as a U.S. Marine at Camp Pendleton; four women in Riverside and San Diego counties while stationed at Twentynine Palms; and 3 women in Chicago while working as a security guard after leaving the military. Attorney Denise Gragg, who represented Urdiales, countered that her client was born with brain damage and suffered a childhood marked by emotional, physical, sexual and psychological abuse. Urdiales committed his first alleged murder on the evening of January 18, 1986. At the Saddleback Community College campus in Mission Viejo, he stalked 23-year old Communication Arts student Robbin Bradley and stabbed her 41 times with a knife; Bradley died on the spot. He was found guilty of the murders over the subsequent 7 years of Julie McGhee, Tammie Erwin and Denise Many in Riverside County, and Mary Ann Wells. A 9th woman, Jennifer Asbenson, escaped from Urdiales after being kidnapped and sexually assaulted in a remote Riverside County desert. While the Southern California News Group does not normally identify victims of sexual assault, Asbenson has spoken extensively about her experience in public forums. A Chicago jury in 2002 convicted Urdiales of killing Laura Uylaki, Cassandra Corum and Lynn Huberand and sentenced him to death.