Ex-Marine Will Face Death Penalty

Orange County prosecutors announced today they will seek the death penalty for a former Marine accused of killing six people.   

Itzcoatl Ocampo, 24, of Yorba Linda, is accused of killing a mother and
her adult son last October, then fatally stabbing four homeless men between
December and January in what prosecutors called thrill killings. He remains jailed without bail and is tentatively scheduled to go on
trial Sept. 10.  

Ocampo is charged with the Oct. 25 slayings of Raquel Estrada, 53, and
her son, Juan Herrera, 34, and the fatal stabbings of four homeless men
starting Dec. 20.   

The first homeless victim was 53-year-old James McGillivray, who was
attacked as he slept outside a Placentia shopping center on Dec. 20. Eight days
later, the body of Lloyd "Jim'' Middaugh, 42, turned up on Anaheim's Santa Ana River Trail. Paulus Cornelius "Dutch'' Smit, 57, was found dead behind the
Yorba Linda library on Dec. 30.

Ocampo was arrested Jan. 13, shortly after he allegedly stabbed John
Berry in Anaheim and was chased into a nearby mobile home park. He is charged with six counts of murder, along with the special- circumstance allegations of multiple murders and lying and wait, and a sentencing enhancement for personal use of a deadly weapon.

-City News Service