Court to combine trials

A suspected serial killer will have his trial for the 1979 kidnapping and slaying of a Huntington Beach girl combined with those for four Los Angeles killings, the California Supreme Court has ruled.

Rodney James Alcala, 62, was convicted twice of killing 12-year-old Huntington Beach resident Robin Samsoe, but both convictions were thrown out on appeal.

In the meantime, he spent decades on death row at San Quentin prison.

Before a third trial began, Los Angeles County investigators announced they had DNA evidence that Alcala was linked to the killings of four young women in the months before Samsoe’s death.

Normally murder trials are separated by county, but the court cited a law allowing them to be consolidated in serial murder trials if the circumstances of each case are similar enough.

Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas praised the decision: “Robin Samsoe has had to wait three decades to get justice. Two juries have found Mr. Alcala guilty of brutally kidnapping and murdering Robin and recommended he face the death penalty. The California Supreme Court correctly recognized that a serial murder case involving five young women in two neighboring counties with common characteristics, including blunt facial trauma and sexual sadisms, should be tried together. This will facilitate justice.”

MICHAEL ALEXANDER may be reached at (714) 966-4618 or at michael.alexander@latimes. com.