LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sentencing for a man convicted of two murders who prosecutors dubbed “The Boy Next Door Killer” was delayed Friday over a defense motion that seeks a new trial because the prosecution failed to share information that would have compromised the credibility of a detective who was a key witness in the case.
A jury recommended the death penalty for 44-year-old Michael Thomas Gargiulo, who was found guilty in August of the home-invasion murders of two women, one of whom was about to go on a date with actor Ashton Kutcher.
But sentencing has been delayed indefinitely while Judge Larry P. Fidler considers a defense motion that came after revelations in a Los Angeles Times story that retired sheriff’s Detective Mark Lillienfeld, a former investigator on Gargiulo’s case, had posed as a deputy in 2018 and smuggled contraband into a county jail while working as a district attorney’s investigator.
The violation was unrelated to Gargiulo’s case, but his defense attorneys assert that the prosecution was required by law to disclose it to the defense so they could use it to attack his credibility as a witness and detective during the trial.
“I think it’s definitely a due process violation,” Gargiulo’s attorney Dale Rubin said during a break in the hearing.