Terry Childs is a California man whose convictions for murder span three decades and two states. He was convicted in Santa Cruz County in 1987 of the murder of a 17-year-old, Lois Sigala, near Scotts Valley, and was sentenced to 41 years to life. In the following decades he spoke to investigators about other killings. In June 1998 he pleaded guilty in Nevada to the murder of Rulan McGill, and in April 2017 he pleaded guilty in Santa Cruz County to two further murders, those of Joan Mack in 1984 and Christopher Hall in 1985. He was 61 years old at that plea.
Childs was convicted in Santa Cruz County in 1987 of the murder of Lois Sigala, a 17-year-old, in the Scotts Valley area. The sentence was 41 years to life. It was the term he was serving when investigators in two states began to hear from him about earlier deaths.
In 1997, while serving the California term, Childs began talking to authorities, and he confessed to a dozen murders across the West in the late 1970s. Nevada investigators treated the information as a lead and found evidence tying him to one of them. Rulan McGill, 32, died in the Reno area in July 1979. Her death was unsolved for about twenty years.
A Washoe County grand jury indicted Childs for murder in November 1997. He was returned to Reno in May 1998 to face the charge. On a Friday in early June 1998, at his arraignment in Washoe District Court, he pleaded guilty and told the judge that he admitted to killing her. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty. Sentencing was set for July 10, 1998, nineteen years to the day after her death. The sentence imposed is not on record.
Two further deaths in Santa Cruz County remained unsolved for more than thirty years. Joan Mack died in 1984 in the Aptos area. Christopher Hall died in 1985 in Santa Cruz. Both cases were closed after Childs spoke with local law enforcement and admitted to them.
On Friday, April 7, 2017, in Santa Cruz County Superior Court, Childs pleaded guilty to two counts of murder, one for each death. The court sentenced him to two terms of life without the possibility of parole, to be served consecutively with the sentences he already held from the 1987, 1998 and 2007 matters.
A sentence of life without the possibility of parole means that the prisoner is never eligible for release, while a term such as 41 years to life carries eligibility for a parole hearing only after the stated period. Consecutive terms are added together and run one after the other. Childs's 2017 terms were consecutive to his earlier sentences, so they cannot be reduced by the earlier terms ending.
His 1997 admission to a dozen murders across the West led to no further convictions beyond those set out above. His sentences also include a 2007 matter in Santa Clara County whose details have not been established.
July 1979: Rulan McGill, 32, dies in the Reno area; Childs later pleaded guilty to her murder.
1984: Joan Mack dies in the Aptos area.
1985: Christopher Hall dies in Santa Cruz.
1987: Childs convicted of the murder of Lois Sigala, near Scotts Valley; 41 years to life.
1997 (November): Washoe County grand jury indicts him for the McGill murder.
1998 (June): pleads guilty in Washoe District Court.
2017 (April 7): pleads guilty to two counts of murder in Santa Cruz County; two consecutive terms of life without possibility of parole.