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The Associated Press

Saturday, Feb 4, 2012 3:09 AM UTC

More Charges Ahead For Man Held In Homeless Deaths

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SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Prosecutors said Friday they plan to file two more murder charges against an ex-Marine accused of killing 4 homeless men in Southern California.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackaukas on Friday announced the pending charges against Itzcoatl Ocampo.

Ocampo will be charged with the stabbing deaths of Raquel Estrada and her son Juan Herrera.

Charges were dropped earlier Friday against Estrada’s son, 24-year-old Eder Herrera, who was arrested shortly after the October killings. A judge dismissed the charges after detectives linked Ocampo to the fatal stabbings and found that Ocampo was associated with Herrera.

Authorities earlier linked Ocampo to a killing spree in December and January targeting four homeless men: James Patrick McGillivray, 53, who was stabbed Dec. 20 near a shopping center in Placentia; Lloyd Middaugh, 42, who was found Dec. 28 near a riverbed trail in Anaheim; Paulus Smit, 57, who was stabbed to death outside a Yorba Linda library on Dec. 30; and John Berry, 64, who was stabbed to death on the day Ocampo was arrested.

Each of the four men was stabbed more than 40 times with a weapon believed to be a 7-inch, fixed-blade, military-type knife, authorities said.

Before Ocampo’s Jan. 13 arrest, police fanned out across the county better known as the home to Disneyland and multimillion-dollar beachfront homes to urge the homeless to be careful and seek shelter indoors.

Ocampo has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder, plus the special circumstances of multiple victims and murder by lying-in-wait.

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