Joseph Naso Convicted On All Charges
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) — Joseph Naso, an elderly photographer accused of killing four women in the 1970s and 1990s has been convicted of four counts of murder, KPIX-TV reports.
The panel received the case and deliberated briefly Monday after Joseph Naso, 79, finished closing arguments in his own defense.
Naso has pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder and represented himself during the two-month trial with some assistance from the Marin County public defender's office. He faces the death penalty if convicted.
Naso was arrested in Reno, Nev., in 2010 after probation officers searched his home in an unrelated case found numerous photographs of nude women who appeared unconscious, obituaries of some of the victims, a list of unnamed women who appeared to be murder victims, and other evidence.
Naso's DNA was found on one of the victims, 18-year-old Roxene Roggasch, and DNA from his ex-wife was discovered on pantyhose found wrapped around Roggasch.
Prosecutors read numerous entries in a diary they say Naso kept that contained scrawled accounts of approaching women and offering them a ride home.
"Outside the front door I overpowered her and ravaged her," read one entry set in London. "I couldn't help myself."
Other passages described incidents in Ohio, New York, Kansas and California.
During his closing argument that began Friday morning, Naso came across as a confused and cantankerous grandfather who claimed he is being prosecuted for offbeat sexual desires that he never acted upon, rather than for the actual murders of four young women.
"In his preposterous way where he fumbled and bumbled for two days as a confused grandfatherly type may have humanized him for the jury," said Barry Kanal, an attorney not connected to the case who watched the proceedings Monday.
"On the other hand," Kanal said, "the prosecution did a great job of arguing that the DNA evidence was incontrovertible, and she hit all the high points for the jurors."
Jurors will reconvene again to determine if Naso deserves the death penalty. Even if he is sentenced to death, it is unlikely he would be executed. There are already 725 inmates on Death Row awaiting executions, which a federal judge put on hold in 2006 until the state revamps its capital punishment system.
Naso killed four prostitutes whose names have double initials: Roggasch in 1977; 22-year-old Carmen Colon in 1978; 38-year-old Pamela Parsons in 1993; and 31-year-old Tracy Tafoya in 1994.
Investigators have not said whether the double initials in each victim's name was a coincidence or a plan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
