SANTA ANA, Calif. — One of two registered sex offenders charged with raping and killing four California women confessed to a police detective after his arrest this year, testimony from a grand jury transcript unsealed Monday revealed.
Steven Dean Gordon, 45, also told police that he and codefendant Frank Cano killed a fifth woman who has never been identified.
Both men were wearing electronic monitoring devices during the time period when authorities say they attacked the women, although the transcript reveals that Gordon was not being monitored for a roughly nine-day period during which he said he and Cano killed one of the victims.
Gordon’s state electronic anklet had been removed and he had yet to be fitted with a federal anklet, he told Trapp.
The confession by Gordon came during an interview that lasted more than 13 hours the day after Gordon’s arrest, Anaheim police Detective Julissa Trapp told the grand jury.
The transcript contains little new information about the 28-year-old Cano.
Both defendants have pleaded not guilty. Phone and e-mail messages left for their attorneys were not immediately returned.
Trapp reported that Gordon first said that Cano didn’t know of Gordon’s plans to strangle the women, but he later said that Cano helped kill them.
The two were arrested on April 11 after one victim’s body was found on a recyling plant conveyor belt.