Marin County Jury Convicts Joseph Naso, 79, of Murdering Four Northern California Women in the 1970s and 1990s
Naso, who represented himself, denied killing anyone. The same jury was to return in September to decide whether he should be sentenced to death.
Published
Four women were killed and left along rural roads in Northern California between 1977 and 1994. On August 20, 2013, a Marin County jury found Joseph Naso, 79, guilty of all four murders.
The jury in San Rafael convicted Naso of four counts of first-degree murder and found true the special circumstance of multiple murders, which made him eligible for the death penalty. Naso, a former photographer from the Reno area, acted as his own attorney during the two-month trial with the help of advisory counsel. He acknowledged hiring prostitutes and photographing them, but said he did not kill anyone. After the verdict, Naso asked Superior Court Judge Andrew Sweet to declare a mistrial, and Sweet denied the request. The same jury was to reconvene on September 4 for the penalty phase, with prosecutors seeking death.
Naso was convicted of killing Roxene Roggasch, 18, in 1977; Carmen Colon, 22, in 1978; Pamela Parsons, 38, in 1993; and Tracy Tafoya, 31, in 1994. Roggasch's body was found near Lagunitas in Marin County, Colon's near Port Costa in Contra Costa County, and Parsons' and Tafoya's in Yuba County. The case became known as the "alphabet murders" because each woman's first and last names began with the same letter. Probation officers searching his home in an unrelated case found photographs and writings that prosecutors used at trial, and prosecutors said his DNA was found on evidence from Roggasch. He was sentenced to death in Marin County on November 22, 2013.
KQED reported that Naso was arrested in Reno in 2010, while NBC Bay Area described his arrest at his Reno home as taking place in 2011.
Sources
- Serial killer Naso guilty of 4 slayings, San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)
- Jury Finds Accused "Alphabet Murders" Serial Killer Joseph Naso Guilty of Killing 4 Women, NBC Bay Area
- Marin Jury Finds Joseph Naso Guilty on Four Counts of Murder, KQED
- Condemned Inmate List, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
Related News
- November 22, 2013: Marin County Judge Sentences Joseph Naso, 79, to Death After His Conviction for Killing Four Northern California Women