Franc Cano, who with an confederate kidnapped and killed a number of ladies in Anaheim and Santa Ana whereas on sex-offender probation, pleaded responsible to homicide Thursday after prosecutors dropped their name for the demise penalty.
Cano’s responsible pleas to 4 counts of rape and homicide — which brings an automated jail sentence of life with out parole — eliminates the necessity for his long-delayed trial. It seems to shut a case that had languished whereas victims’ households begged for motion.
It has been almost a decade since Cano, 36, launched into a five-month collection of murders along with his companion, Steven Gordon. Their targets have been ladies working in avenue prostitution in Anaheim and Santa Ana.
Their first sufferer, so far as police know, was Kianna Jackson, a Las Vegas lady who had simply turned 20 when she disappeared from the streets of Santa Ana on Oct. 6, 2013. Her mom, Kathy Menzies, remembers that when she reported her lacking, police confirmed little curiosity in trying to find her, with the reason that Jackson was a “circuit woman” with a report for prostitution.
Her physique was by no means discovered. Nor was the physique of a second lady, Josephine Monique Vargas, 34, who vanished 18 days later. Nor was the physique of a 3rd, Martha Anaya, 27, who disappeared 19 days after that.
On March 14, 2014, detectives have been summoned to Republic Waste Providers in Anaheim, the place one other younger lady’s physique had been discovered amid particles. She was recognized as Jarrae Estepp, 21, of Ardmore, Okla., who had been staying on the Anaheim Lodge on Seashore Boulevard.
Steven Gordon, 47, cries throughout his 2017 sentencing.
(Mark Boster/Los Angeles Occasions)
Detectives linked the crimes to Cano utilizing the GPS monitor he was sporting as a situation of his parole as a intercourse offender. His DNA was additionally present in Estepp’s physique. The lead investigator within the case, Anaheim police Det. Julissa Trapp, was the topic of a 2019 Occasions collection and podcast inspecting her position within the case.
His confederate, Steven Gordon, went to trial in 2016 and insisted on representing himself, describing Cano as a predator with no conscience and referring to him alternately as “my pal” and “that little bastard.”
Gordon mentioned he deserved the demise penalty, and a jury agreed. Orange County Superior Court docket Choose Patrick H. Donahue despatched him to demise row in San Quentin in February 2017.
Cano was anticipated to go on trial quickly after Gordon. However delays multiplied as attorneys left the case and COVID-19 sharply curtailed courtroom enterprise. The case was additionally difficult by the Orange County district lawyer’s unique choice to hunt the demise penalty in opposition to Cano.
Cano’s lawyer, Chuck Hasse, mentioned he made a presentation to the D.A.’s workplace in October asking it to rethink. Between the 2 killers, he argued, his consumer had been the follower, not the chief.
“From beginning, he was a follower,” Hasse mentioned, whereas Gordon was the “alpha canine.”
Donahue sentenced Cano to life with out parole Thursday, 3,171 days after his arrest.
