Death Penalty Recommended For Serial Killer Andrew Urdiales

MISSION VIEJO, CA — It was a long time coming for the families of his victims, but after years of waiting the verdict was in. A death penalty sentence was recommended by an Orange County jury for a former Marine who killed five women in Southern California and is already serving a life prison term in Illinois for three murders in Chicago.

Andrew Urdiales, 53, was convicted of the Southern California killings May 23. The same jury deliberated for about a day before recommending that he be put to death for each of the five murders. Sentencing was set for Aug. 31.

The father of Robbin Brandley, a 23-years-old at the time of her death, was in attendance of the reading. Jack Reilley said that as he held hands with the relatives of other victims in court Wednesday that he "felt a lot of pissed- off emotion."

Reilley said he was unsurprised by the verdict because prosecutors had put on a strong case. Urdiales is "like a maddog, who needs to be put down," Reilley said. "He's non-human. That's what he is to me." Reilley has kept a blog of his journey to this point: www.whomurderedrobbinbrandley.com

Jennifer Asbenson, one of the few known surviving victims who managed to get away from Urdiales, embraced two of Urdiales' siblings following the verdicts.

"I told her I was sorry for this whole situation, sorry they have to go through all of this," Asbenson said she told one of Urdiales' sisters.

When the verdicts were announced in court, Asbenson said she felt "really relieved, like a huge weight was taken off of me."

She recalled that as Urdiales was strangling her, "I imagined this day," and the verdicts, "Made me feel safer."

Asbenson said she was glad Urdiales will be sent to death row because life in prison without the possibility of parole would have given him "hope, and he doesn't deserve hope. He deserves the death penalty."

Her experience as a victim has caused her post-traumatic stress disorder, but Asbenson has countered that by taking self-defense classes and realized eventually that, "I fought for my life to live my life. I'm not afraid anymore."

She revealed that she saw news reports of 23-year-old Robbin Brandley's death and how saddened she was by it and, "A year later I was grabbed by the same guy."

Asbenson said she got a burst of "superhuman strength" to burst the twine Urdiales had used to bind her in the trunk of his car after she prayed for help. Working her hands free over an extended period of time, she was at last able to get away.

Steve Wells, the son of victim Maryann Wells, said his mother had a "heart of gold," and that she was a "good woman caught up in a bad situation at the end of her life."

Wells said he also felt "an enormous weight lifted off of my shoulders."

He criticized Urdiales for "showing no remorse" during the proceedings.

Charles Erwin, the father of victim Tammie Erwin, also felt a "large weight off my shoulders" as the verdicts were pronounced.

"We won, it's a good thing," he said. "At this point this morning I didn't care which verdict he got because he's never going to hurt anyone again."

Urdiales killed five women in Orange, San Diego and Riverside counties between 1986 and 1995.

He had been sentenced to death in Chicago for murdering three women there, but when the death penalty was abolished in Illinois he was re-sentenced to life without parole. He was brought to Orange County in 2011 to be tried for the five murders in the Southland.

Urdiales' attorney, Denise Gragg, argued Monday that brain scans and psychological tests showed her client had symptoms of someone afflicted with partial fetal alcohol syndrome. The killer's mother was a steady drinker and imbibed when she was pregnant with Urdiales, she said.

That brain damage combined with a childhood of traumatic events left him with trouble managing his anger and emotions. The U.S. Marine Corps veteran performed well in the structured environment of the military, she argued, but did poorly in less-stable conditions.

Urdiales told investigators that he got into spats with many of the women before he snapped and killed them. Gragg said he would dissociate at times so that he wouldn't even be present consciously during the murders.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy argued there was little evidence to prove Urdiales' childhood was as unhappy as his defense attorneys claimed. There also wasn't as much childhood bullying as the defense alleged, he said.

Murphy also argued that jurors should give greater weight to the suffering of the families who lost loved ones at the hands of the killer. Murphy argued that Urdiales was able to control his anger, but chose to attack his victims because he is sadistic and a misogynist.

Referring to the torturous sexual assault and attempted killing of another victim who managed to escape, Murphy said, "She went to hell for the entertainment" of Urdiales.

"This is his hobby. He's doing this for fun," Murphy said of the attack on the victim who escaped.
Urdiales was convicted of killing:

• 23-year-old Robbin Brandley, who was attacked as she walked to her car following a concert on Jan. 18, 1986, at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo;
• 29-year-old Julie McGhee on July 17, 1988, in Cathedral City;
• 31-year-old Maryann Wells on Sept. 25, 1988, in San Diego;
• 20-year-old Tammie Erwin on April 16, 1989, in Palm Springs; and
• 32-year-old Denise Maney on March 11, 1995, in Palm Springs.

Urdiales was previously convicted of killing Laura Uylaki, Cassandra Corum and Lynn Huber, who worked as prostitutes in Illinois in the mid-1990s.

City News Service, Ashley Ludwig, Patch Editor, contributed to this report

Orange County District Attorney's Office Photo