A California district attorney is drawing attention to the brutal crimes committed by nearly 50 death row prisoners in his county after Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed blanket clemency for every condemned inmate in the state.
According to the office of Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, three of the inmates were convicted of killing police officers. One, Randy Steven Kraft, was convicted of murdering at least 16 young men and has been linked to dozens of other suspected killings. Another, Skylar DeLeon, was convicted in the murders of an Arizona couple in a crime prosecutors said was intended to fund a gender-confirmation surgery that DeLeon later received while incarcerated.
Spitzer’s office provided details about the cases. Here are several of them:
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer speaks with reporters after announcing a murder charge against David Wenwei Chou in the Laguna Woods church shooting case on May 17, 2022, in Santa Ana, California. Spitzer said the charge could result in the death penalty. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Serial killers:
Randy Steven Kraft became known by several grim nicknames during a killing spree that lasted from 1972 to 1983, including the “Scorecard Killer,” the “Southern California Strangler” and the “Freeway Killer.” He was sentenced to death after being convicted of raping, torturing and killing at least 16 young men. Authorities have also identified him as a suspect in 51 additional deaths involving young men and boys.
Gerald Parker, dubbed the “Bedroom Basher,” was a serial home-invasion rapist accused of killing five women and an unborn child during the 1970s. He remained at large until DNA evidence connected him to the crimes in 1996. A jury sentenced him to death in 1998.
Steven Dean Gordon had already been convicted of child molestation when he and an accomplice killed at least four women between 2013 and 2014. Billy Joe Johnson, a member of a white supremacist gang, reportedly asked for the death penalty after being convicted in five killings, including the murder of a childhood friend and fellow gang member.
A handout image from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shows Randy Steven Kraft in 1983, left, and in June 2007, right. Authorities believe Kraft, considered one of California’s most prolific serial killers, may have murdered as many as 65 young men in Oregon, Michigan and California over a 13-year period ending in 1983. He was sentenced to death after a trial that lasted nearly a year. His crimes came to light after he was stopped on suspicion of driving under the influence in 1981 and officers discovered a dead Marine in his Toyota. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via Getty Images)
Cop killers:
Kevin Dewayn Boyce, a member of the Crips, killed off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Shayne York during a 1997 robbery at a hair salon. York was inside with his fiancée when Boyce spotted his badge, called him a “pig” and shot him in the head.
In 1996, California Highway Patrol Officer Don Joseph Burt pulled over Hung Thanh Mai in Fullerton. Investigators said Mai shot Burt several times before firing what prosecutors described as an execution-style shot to the head.
Maurice Gerald Steskal was accused of lying in wait for Orange County sheriff’s Deputy Brad Riches in June 1999. Steskal opened fire with an AK-47, striking Riches 30 times as the deputy sat in his patrol vehicle.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks while campaigning for then-Senate candidate Chris Pappas at Exeter Town Hall on Oct. 17, 2026, in Exeter, New Hampshire. (John Tully/Getty Images)
Other killers:
John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Skylar DeLeon were dubbed the “Yacht Killers” after they were convicted of kidnapping an Arizona couple in Newport Beach, binding them to an anchor and drowning them about 55 miles offshore in the Pacific. Prosecutors said the crime was intended to provide money for a gender-confirmation operation. DeLeon, a former child actor who was born John Jacobson Jr., was also convicted in the 2003 killing of Anaheim associate Jon Jarvi.
John Joseph Famalaro, known as the “Cold Storage Killer,” abducted 23-year-old Denise Huber at gunpoint in 1991 after seeing her beside a disabled vehicle. He took her to a warehouse, sexually assaulted her, restrained her and beat her to death with a hammer and crowbar. He then concealed her remains in an industrial freezer truck.
Skylar DeLeon speaks with attorneys at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach, California, on March 4, 2004. (Glenn Koenig/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Spitzer is one of several California district attorneys challenging Newsom’s recent call for clemency. Before any such action becomes final, the state Supreme Court is expected to review hundreds of cases.
California has not carried out an execution in two decades. However, inmates on death row have generally not benefited from the criminal justice reforms that reduced sentences for many other offenders.
“Gov. Gavin Newsom’s commutation of the death sentences of all 548 condemned inmates in California is mercy for the wolves … while inflicting the ultimate act of cruelty on the sheep,” Spitzer said in an earlier statement. Critics including Spitzer argue that removing death sentences could bring the inmates closer to additional leniency and, eventually, the possibility of release.
Newsom’s office has responded that the prisoners covered by the proposal would not qualify for the state parole board’s newer guidelines—an issue critics say could otherwise create a path to freedom in the future.
At least not under the current rules.