Crime & Safety

Alleged OC Serial Killer Says He 'Needed to Kill'

Iraq veteran accused of killing four homeless men and a mother and son, reportedly told police he "needed to kill" and had planned to 16 people before his killing spree was done.

The former Marine charged with stabbing to death a Yorba Linda woman, her son and four homeless men allegedly told an Anaheim detective that he was disappointed when he returned from Iraq because while on his tour of duty he ``became a truck driver instead of a killer,'' according to a grand jury transcript obtained by The Orange County Register that was reported on today.


Itzcoatl ``Izzy'' Ocampo, 23, told Detective Daron Wyatt after his arrest in January that he joined the Marines to kill people, according to The Register.

``He felt in order to become a real Marine, he needed to kill,'' Wyatt told the grand jury, the newspaper reported. Ocampo allegedly wanted to kill 16 people, Wyatt testified, according to the newspaper.

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``He said he needed to keep killing,'' the newspaper reported Wyatt testified. ``And he actually had predesignated that he was going to select 16 victims. ... He told me that Charles Whitman (the Texas Tower killer) had killed 16 people... And that Charles Whitman had been a Marine.''

Deputy District Attorney Susan Price, the prosecutor on the case, said she did not have any comment on the report.

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There was no immediate response to messages left with Ocampo's attorney,
Randall Longwith.

Wyatt also reportedly testified that Ocampo said he felt he was ``doing a service to the community, because the homeless population had become a blight to the community.''

Ocampo served as a medic and drove a Hummer during his time in Iraq. Longwith has previously said that it is possible Ocampo was traumatized by what he saw during his tour of duty.

Ocampo was recently put on 24-hour guard after slamming his head on a toilet in his cell. According to Longwith, his client said he hears voices and he struck his head because, ``He wants it to stop.''

Ocampo has suffered from severe headaches and twitching since he finished his tour of duty in Iraq, Longwith said.

Ocampo is charged with the Oct. 25 slayings of Raquel Estrada, 53, and her son, Juan Herrera, 34, as well as fatally stabbing four homeless men, starting Dec. 20.

The first victim was 53-year-old James McGillivray, who was attacked as he slept outside a Placentia shopping center on Dec. 20. Eight days later, the body of Lloyd ``Jim'' Middaugh, 42, turned up on Anaheim's Santa Ana River Trail. Paulus Cornelius ``Dutch'' Smit, 57, was found dead behind the Yorba Linda library on Dec. 30.

Raquel Estrada's other son, Eder Herrera, was initially arrested and charged in the double slaying, but prosecutors later dropped the charges and now allege Ocampo was the killer.

Ocampo allegedly confessed to killing the mother and her son because he thought they were rude to him, Brea police detective Phillip Rodriguez told the grand jury, according to The Register. Ocampo reportedly was upset that his longtime friendship with Eder Herrera had ended and he allegedly planned to kill Eder Herrera as well and frame him to make it appear to be a murder- suicide, the detective testified, according to The Register.

Ocampo was arrested Jan. 13, shortly after he allegedly stabbed John Berry in Anaheim and was chased into a nearby mobile home park.

Ocampo is next due in court on April 20. A trial date has been set for Sept. 10.

-City News Service


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