Richard Ramirez coolly flashed a sign of the devil and muttered the word "evil" after jurors convicted him of all 13 murders and 30 other felonies in the 1985 satanism-tinged "Night Stalker" rampage.
The glum, shaggy-haired drifter refused to stay in the courtroom when jurors returned their verdicts Wednesday after 22 days of deliberations.The jury found that Ramirez was the devil-worshiping "Night Stalker" who left satanic symbols at some murder scenes and forced terrified victims to "swear to Satan" as they suffered unspeakable assaults.
Husbands were murdered in their beds and wives were raped beside the bodies. One victim's eyes were gouged out.
The verdicts came four years after the killings terrified many Californians and more than a year after the trial began. When Ramirez was caught, it was by angry residents who ran him down and beat him.
Ramirez, of El Paso, Texas, listened to the verdicts on a speaker in a nearby cell.
As he was taken from the courthouse while wearing sunglasses, Ramirez flashed photographers a "devil sign," extending his index and little finger.
Asked what he thought about the verdicts, the 29-year-old Ramirez said only:
"Evil."
The trial's finale came despite a juror's slaying, which had threatened to halt the case during deliberations.
In a silent courtroom, Superior Court Judge Michael Tynan and clerk Josephine Williams spent more than a half hour reading the jury's thick book of verdicts. The word "guilty" echoed again and again.
Ramirez was convicted of all charges, including rape, sodomy, oral copulation, burglary and attempted murder. In addition, the jurors found 18 special circumstances existed, making it possible to impose the death penalty.
In one of the murders, the panel reduced a charge of first-degree murder to second degree, a decision the prosecutor praised as "sophisticated." The victim in that murder, Tsai-Lian Yu was dragged from her car on a street and shot to death, indicating a lack of premeditation.
Ramirez still faces an attempted murder charge in Orange County and a murder charge in San Francisco. His status in those cases will be decided after sentencing in the Los Angeles case.
Tynan scheduled the penalty phase of the trial to begin Sept. 27. The same jury will decide the sentence. The judge forbade the jurors from talking about the case.
"We're going to try to save his life," defense attorney Ray Clark said of the penalty proceeding. "We will try to convince the jury that he should not be executed."
The defense had argued Ramirez was a victim of mistaken identity, that the victims were too traumatized to remember their assailant's face.
Clark characterized Ramirez' reaction to the verdicts as "kind of stoic."
Clark said he would appeal, citing the juror's slaying as one reason for overturning the conviction.