SANTA ANA, Calif. — Franc Cano, who with an accomplice abducted and killed several women in Anaheim and Santa Ana while on sex-offender probation, pleaded guilty to murder Thursday after prosecutors dropped their call for the death penalty.
Cano's guilty pleas to four counts of rape and murder — which brings an automatic prison sentence of life without parole — eliminates the need for his long-delayed trial. It appears to close a case that had languished while victims' families begged for action.
It has been nearly a decade since Cano, 36, embarked on a five-month series of murders with his companion, Steven Gordon. Their targets were women working in street prostitution in Anaheim and Santa Ana.