'I'm truly sorry for everyone I hurt': Golden State Killer Joseph DeAngelo, 74, is sentenced to life after pleading guilty to 13 murders, 13 kidnappings and confessing to 161 other crimes

A former California police officer who lived a double life as the 'Golden State Killer' has been sentenced to life in prison for a string of murders and rapes in the 1970s and 80s that were solved through the use of public genealogy websites. 

Joseph James DeAngelo, 74, was jailed for life on Friday following four days of emotional hearings in Sacramento during which his victims or their family members confronted him in open court.

Before learning his fate, DeAngelo, who had sat silently in his wheelchair throughout his trial, stood up for the first time and removed his mask before apologizing to his victims and their families. 

'I've listened to all your statements. Each one of them,' he said. 'And I'm truly sorry for everyone I've hurt.'  

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Joseph James DeAngelo, 74, - aka the Golden State Killer - stood up from his wheelchair and removed his mask before apologizing to his victims and their families in court on Friday

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DeAngelo told the court he was 'truly sorry' for everyone he has hurt before being sentenced to life in prison without parole

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Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman handed him a life sentenced after DeAngelo pleaded guilty to 13 murders and 13 rape-related charges between 1975 and 1986

Joseph DeAngelo speaks before being sentenced to life in prison

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DeAngelo in June pleaded guilty to 13 counts of murder and 13 counts of kidnapping that occurred between 1975 and 1986. 

He also confessed to 161 other crimes - many of which were rapes - that he couldn't be charged for because they took place outside the statute of limitations. 

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DeAngelo is pictured in the early 70s when he worked with the Exeter Police Department. He married Huddle in 1973

Prosecutors called his more than decade-long spate of crimes 'simply staggering,' encompassing 87 victims at 53 separate crime scenes spanning 11 California counties.

The case set several hallmarks.

To finally identify and arrest him in 2018, investigators pioneered a new method of DNA tracing that involves building a family tree from publicly accessible genealogy websites to narrow the list of suspects.

They linked nearly 40-year-old DNA from crime scenes to a distant relative, and eventually to a discarded tissue they surreptitiously sneaked from DeAngelo's garbage can in suburban Sacramento.

The same technique has since been used to solve 93 murders and rapes across the nation, said Ron Harrington, the brother of one of DeAngelo's victims.

'It is probably the most important (recent) advancement by law enforcement in solving cold case murders and rapes,' he said.

His family has been obsessed with solving the 1980 slayings of youngest brother Keith Harrington and his new wife, Patrice Harrington.

It led oldest brother Bruce Harrington to champion Proposition 69, passed by California voters in 2004, that expanded the collection of DNA samples from prisoners and those arrested for felonies and has since led to more than 81,000 identifications.

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DeAngelo, known as the Golden State Killer, sat with public defenders Joseph Cress (L) and Diane Howard at his sentencing hearing held at CSU Sacramento 

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Jane Carson-Sandler, who was raped by the serial killer in 1976, confronted DeAngelo during the second day of victim impact statements at the Gordon D. Schaber Sacramento County Courthouse on Wednesday.

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Gay Hardwick, left, is comforted by her spouse Bob Hardwick, center, and San Joaquin County's District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar during the second day of victim impact statements with Joseph James DeAngelo present

The brothers were among family members and survivors who gave three days of often heartbreaking testimony before DeAngelo is formally sentenced Friday by Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman.

Most said they will never be the same, even as they told of their resilience and the bond they have formed since DeAngelo's arrest.

The sweep of his crimes is measured by the mysterious stalker's nicknames over the years, prosecutors said: the Visalia Ransacker, thought to be responsible for about 100 burglaries and one slaying in the San Joaquin Valley farm town; the East Area Rapist; the Original Night Stalker; and finally, the Golden State Killer when investigators linked the crimes that stretched across much of the state.

'He started off as a Peeping Tom, a voyeur, somebody lurking around women´s bedrooms at night peering in. He then became a two-bit burglar, breaking into women's bedrooms, stealing trinkets and women´s underwear,' Ron Harrington recalled.

That escalated to raping single women, then to humiliating couples.

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Debbi McMullan (left) and Melanie Barbeau also came face to face with DeAngelo during the third day of victim impact statements on Thursday. DeAngelo killed McMullan's mother, Cheri Domingo, and Domingo's boyfriend, Gregory Sanchez, in 1981

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Elizabeth Hupp, daughter of Claude Snelling, breaks down in tears as she reads her victim impact statement in court on Thursday. Snelling died thwarting DeAngelo's attempted kidnapping of his daughter Hupp when she was 16 in 1975

His technique became his trademark: He would force his victims at gunpoint to bind themselves with shoelaces, then balance plates on the man´s back with a warning that he would kill both victims if he heard the plates rattle while he raped the woman.

He killed three early Northern California victims when they interfered with his assaults on women. But he escalated again when he moved to Southern California, to 10 known murders.

Even DeAngelo's ex-wife, Sacramento attorney Sharon Huddle, said in a court filing Thursday that she was fooled, though many victims have wondered aloud how she could not have known of her husband´s double life.

'I trusted the defendant when he told me he had to work, or was going pheasant hunting, or going to visit his parents hundreds of miles away,' Huddle wrote.

Many victims asked Bowman to make sure DeAngelo is sent to a remote prison and housed among other inmates instead of in protective custody, though state corrections officials said they will make the final decision on where and how he is housed.

'You are finally going to prison and will remain there until you die,' Jane Carson-Sandler, who was raped in 1976, told DeAngelo this week.

She recalled that he famously left behind a roast in the oven when police moved in to make their arrest on April 24, 2018. His survivors, she said, now plan to celebrate each anniversary of his arrest with a similar feast 'in memory of your capture.'

'Too bad you won't get to enjoy it,' she said.