Friends recall PGHS graduate killed by Golden State Killer

UPDATE 4/27/2018 4:30 p.m.: The man suspected of being the elusive Golden State Killer made his first court appearance in Sacramento on Friday.

72 year old former cop Joseph James DeAngelo has been charged with eight counts of murder but believed to be responsible for at least 12 murder, some 50 rapes and dozens of burglaries.

During this three-minute court appearance, he was seen wearing an orange jumpsuit, handcuffed to a wheelchair and flanked by law enforcement as a judge read the charges he is facing.

He was charged in Sacramento County for the 1978 shooting deaths of Brian and Katie Maggiore of Rancho Cordova. DeAngelo was also appointed a public defender. Diane Howard said she wanted to remind people that everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. She also said she didn’t have much information about the case.

“You know I don’t anything about this,” Howard told reporters. “I understand everyone wants information. I have no discovery, I have no information other than what I have read in news reports. I have asked the DA for the discovery, I understand it is hundreds of thousands of pages, I haven’t gotten anything yet. And I don’t expect I will get a lot initially, but hopefully it will be coming in. I am reading the news reports and that’s all I have.”

DeAngelo’s arraignment was continued until May 14. In the meantime, he is being held in the county jail’s psychiatric ward under suicide watch.

Alleged victims also went to Fridays’ hearing, some saying his arrest may finally bring them closure.

“How did it feel to see him in court?” one reporter asked.
“I feel like justice is starting,” one said.
“Does it bring any sort of closure at all?”
“I think for the victims it does.”

One of the Golden State Killer’s alleged victims was a native of the Monterey Peninsula, Gregory Sanchez, 27, of Pacific Grove.

Sanchez was born and raised on the Monterey Peninsula, graduating from Pacific Grove High School in 1972. Then he moved to Southern California to continue on with his education.

Fast forward several year to 1981 when Sanchez and his girlfriend, Cheri Domingo, 35, were found murdered in a Goleta home. The Santa Barbara Sheriff said DNA recovered from the scene matched the DNA that investigators said belonged to the suspect.

Word of DeAngelo’s arrest spread fast. On the Facebook group, ‘Pacific Grove High School Alumni,’ a thread of comments remembering Sanchez with some classmates saying he was ‘a great guy,’ ‘a teammate,’ and ‘a hard worker.’

“Greg was just one of those souls that just touched your heart the minute you met him,” said Debra Asher, a classmate.

Asher, who now lives in Florida, said Greg took her to her prom in 1970, and called him a kind-hearted person who always wanted to help people.

She last saw him in the summer of 1971. When she tried reconnecting with classmates on Facebook, she learned of his murder.

“It broke my heart,” Asher said. “I started reading all of the articles in all of the papers, trying to find out as much as I could because, to lose somebody like Greg, that’s a loss to human beings because he was such a good person.”

She said she broke down in tears after hearing the news of an arrest, saying “it was a relief to know that Greg can now be at peace.”

ORIGINAL POST: The former cop believed to be the Golden State Killer will make his first court appearance in Sacramento on Friday.

Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, of Citrus Heights, has been charged with at least two counts of murder. As the Golden State Killer, authorities believe he’s responsible for at least 12 deaths and 50 rapes in the 1970’s and 80’s.

One of the victims was 27-year-old Gregory Sanchez. Sanchez and his on-and-off girlfriend Cheri Domingo were killed in 1981.

Sanchez was a 1972 graduate of Pacific Grove High School.

In a Facebook post, his classmates remembered what a “great guy he was” and that he was “a hard worker.”

One of those classmates was Debra (Sweet) Asher, who says Sanchez took her to her prom in 1970. She said Sanchez’s death is a loss to human beings because he was such a good person.

“He had a lot of good friends in our school,” Asher said in a telephone interview from Florida. “He was very well-liked by everybody. I know everyone says, ‘Everyone loved him,” and everyone did. Greg was just one of those souls that just touched your heart the minute you met him.”

KION’s Mariana Hicks will have more on the story tonight at 5 and 6 p.m.