Los Angeles: A onetime pizza delivery man who is the most prolific serial killer in Los Angeles history has been ordered to stand trial for strangling 10 women.
Chester Dewayne Turner, who is already serving an eight-year sentence for rape, was linked to 10 murders committed between 1987 to 1998 through DNA evidence.
After a two-day preliminary hearing, Superior Court Judge William Pounders found on Tuesday that there was enough evidence to try Turner, 38, for the 10 murders and set his arraignment for November 15.
However, prosecutors may seek the death penalty in the case.
Turner's Attorney, John Tyre, told reporters after the preliminary hearing that the DNA evidence did not prove his client murdered the women, most of whom were prostitutes killed in or near downtown Los Angeles.
"If it is his DNA, then it indicates he had sex with these women sometime prior to them dying," Tyre said.
Turner was identified as a suspect in the killing spree after his 2002 rape conviction, which was unrelated to the current case but required him to submit a DNA sample.
The bodies of the 10 women, who ranged in age from 21 to 45, were all found partially nude and strangled. Two of the women were pregnant when they were killed.
Prosecutors were investigating Turner in at least two other murders for which another man, David Allen Jones, was convicted.
Jones was freed from prison in March 2004 after evidence surfaced linking Turner to those crimes.
Los Angeles police said in a statement that whoever killed the 10 women was "the most prolific serial killer ever identified in the city of Los Angeles."
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