Tustin Bedroom Basher Serial Rapist Death Penalty Upheld

TUSTIN, CA — The late 1970s serial rapist and murderer's death penalty verdict was upheld yesterday by the California Supreme Court. The "Bedroom Basher," Gerald Parker, committed a string of home invasion rape-murders in Orange County in the late 1970s, according to Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.

The "Bedroom Basher" murders in Anaheim, Costa Mesa and Tustin went unsolved until 1996, when DNA connected Parker to each of the killings. Parker was already in prison on unrelated parole violations according to Rackauckas.

"After DNA linked the physical evidence from the crime scenes to Parker, he was read his Miranda rights by Costa Mesa, Tustin, and Anaheim Police, respectively, five different times while he was incarcerated in state prison, waived his rights, and gave detailed confessions," Rackauckas said.

Parker, a former Marine, was convicted by a jury in October of 1998 for murdering five women in the first-degree with the special circumstances enhancements for committing multiple murders and murder during the attempted commission or commission of a rape and burglary, according to Rackauckas.

Parker was a staff sergeant in the Marine Corps and stationed in Orange County in 1978 and 1979. Of the six women he sexually assaulted and bludgeoned five died at his hands.

The sixth woman who survived Parker's attack was nine months pregnant at the time and her unborn child died as a result of the attack, Rackauckas said.

On Oct. 20, 1998, a jury recommended the death penalty and on Jan. 21, 1999, the Superior Court Judge Frank Briseno sentenced Parker to death.

"'Bedroom Basher' Gerald Parker not only devastated all of these families in his callous, brutal rape and murders, but he struck terror in countless households who lived in fear of these unsolved murders," Rackauckas said.

Though Parker appealed, stating the prosecutor wrongfully dismissed two African- American jurors, and that his confessions should be suppressed because his Miranda rights were violated among other reasons. The California Supreme Court rejected all the arguments in a 66-page opinion, according to Rackauckas.

"This case is a perfect example of how some murderers are so evil that the only punishment that even begins to address their heinous crimes is the death penalty," he said. "It is my hope that Parker's victims and their families can sleep just a little better knowing that the California Supreme Court acknowledged that justice was served at sentencing and affirmed today."

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