Accused Killer Pleads Not Guilty

An accused serial killer who has been behind bars for 25 years for allegedly killing a 12-year-old Huntington Beach girl pleaded not guilty Tuesday to slaying four women in Los Angeles County.

Rodney James Alcala, 62, was indicted on the charges in September after detectives said they had linked him to blood and DNA evidence from the 1970s crimes.

Jill Barcomb, 18, was found bludgeoned and strangled Nov. 10, 1977, three weeks after she moved to California from Oneida, N.Y.

Nurse Georgia Wixted, 27, was beaten and strangled Dec. 16, 1977, in her Malibu apartment.

Legal secretary Charlotte Lamb, 32, of Santa Monica was strangled with a shoelace and found June 24, 1978, in the laundry room of an El Segundo apartment complex.

Keypunch operator Jill Parenteau, 21, was found on June 13, 1979, strangled in her Burbank apartment, pillows propping up her nude body.

All four women had been sexually assaulted.

Robin Samsoe, who lived in Huntington Beach, was kidnapped as she bicycled to a ballet class a week after Parenteau’s death.

Her body was dumped in the Angeles National Forest.

Alcala was arrested soon after Robin’s slaying and was convicted and sentenced to death twice.

Both convictions were overturned on appeal, and he has remained behind bars awaiting a third trial.

A hearing will be held Jan. 13 in which an Orange County judge will decide whether the charges for all five victims will be consolidated into one trial.

Lawyers for Alcala have asked that he be tried separately on the murder charge involving Robin.