Alcala ordered to have 2 trials in 5 slayings

Rodney Alcala, an alleged serial killer facing murder charges for the 1970s slayings of an Orange County girl and four Los Angeles County women, will have two trials, the state’s 4th District Court of Appeal decided Wednesday.

The prosecution had hoped to try Alcala for all five murders at once in Orange County; his defense team had argued for five separate trials.

The justices ordered one trial in the deaths of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe of Huntington Beach; Charlotte Lamb, 32, of Santa Monica; and Jill Parenteau, 21, of Burbank. Another trial will be held in the deaths of Jill Barcomb, 18, a prostitute working in the area of Sunset Boulevard, and Georgia Wixted, 27, of Malibu.

Alcala has been jailed since 1979 for the murder of Robin, but has twice won a retrial of the case.