Attorney Suggests 'Mystery Man' Could Be Responsible For 'Grim Sleeper' Killings
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com/AP) — An attorney for the man charged in the "Grim Sleeper" murders of nine women and a teenage girl told jurors Tuesday that the string of killings could have been committed by a "mystery man."
Lonnie David Franklin Jr.'s attorney, Seymour Amster, told the seven-woman, five man panel each of the murders Franklin is accused of "could have been done by the mystery man with the mystery gun and the mystery DNA" during his closing argument.
Amster told jurors Tuesday that a witness who survived being shot testified that the man who attacked her in his Ford Pinto had stopped earlier at his "uncle's" house to get money.
The survivor, Enietra Washington, later led detectives to the house of Lonnie Franklin Jr., who is accused of 10 counts of murder and her attempted killing.
Amster says she described her assailant as much younger than Franklin and says the real killer could be an unnamed nephew. He also questioned the analysis of DNA results.
A prosecutor displayed charts, diagrams, photos and DNA test results to jurors Monday to make her case that Lonnie Franklin Jr. was a killer hiding in plain sight as he shot and strangled women, many prostitutes, and dumped their bodies in alleys not far from his home.
Franklin could face the death penalty if convicted of the slayings of a 15-year-old girl and nine young women.
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