The beauty salon killings suspect, who gunned down eight people including his ex-wife, might be facing death penalty after pleading guilty to the shooting rampage in Santa Ana California, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
Authorities said the beauty salon killings suspect had already pleaded guilty in court to the 2011 slayings. Now, a legal battle on whether he should be put to death for the killings is being considered.
The suspect named Scott Dekraai already said Friday that he is guilty of the salon killings after prosecutors said that he heavily armed himself that day he walked into a neighborhood beauty salon and opened fire.
Dekraai is guilty to eight counts of special circumstances murder and one count of attempted murder. According to reports, all these make the suspect eligible for the death penalty.
Nonetheless, authorities said that whether the former tug boat captain ends up on death row is still a vague question to answer.
Although a trial is seen to be an effective means of determining whether Dekraai is to face the death penalty or not, the suspect's attorneys have already asked that the fatal penalty be dropped.
Reports say that Dekraai's plea on Friday ended a two-and-a-half-year wait for his trial to begin and quelled a growing sense of frustration for victim's families.
"After today you will not be an alleged killer anymore, you are going to be a convicted murderer," Judge Thomas M. Geothals said to Dekraai.
MSN Now reports that prosecutors on the beauty salon killings suspect's case are seeking the death penalty for resorting to the slaying of eight people at Salon Meritage in Seal Beach in October 2011 after having a dispute with ex-wife Michelle Fournier over the custody of their 8-year-old son.
Eyewitnesses say Dekraai entered the salon, wearing a bulletproof vest and armed with three weapons. After shooting and killing Fournier, he turned his aim to the salon owner, stylists and customers.
Dekraai allegedly killed a man who was sitting in his car in the parking lot, and it didn't take long before police came to arrest the 44-year-old former tugboat operator.
"'I know what I did,'" Dekraai told a responding officer according to police affidavit.
In his gesture of saying that he is guilty of the crime, Dekraai wanted to spare the victims a lengthy trail while he, on the other hand, continues to fight a potential death sentence, said Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders.
"He's not doing this for a tactical reason," Sanders said. "He believes this is absolutely the right thing to do."
Authorities say the case of the beauty salon killings suspect has long focused on whether he should be sentenced to life prison or death, with the relatives of the victims divided over Dekraai's fate.
"This is a horrendous case. This is a multiple-murder case against innocent and defenseless victims, and the only thing that might even approach justice in a case like this is for us to seek the death penalty," Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said on his gesture to seek death for Dekraai to honor the wishes of some of the victims' relatives.
Meanwhile, almost a year after the beauty salon killings had happened, the salon reopened, and six of the original employees returned to work.
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