Gordon and Cano charged with special circumstances murder

Last Friday, Franc Cano, 27, and Steven Dean Gordon, 45, were arrested in Anaheim.  On Monday, they were both charged with four counts of special circumstances murder and four counts of felony rape.   If they are convicted, they will face a minimum of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole and could face the death penalty.  

Background

Both men were previously charged with lewd and lascivious acts with a child under fourteen and were believed to have met in 2012 when they both cut their ankle bracelets and boarded a grey hound bus to Las Vegas.  They were apprehended two weeks later by federal agents and were returned to CA where they were charged and convicted for failing to register as sex offenders.  After the conviction, both reported monthly and were ordered to wear government issued GPS devises. 

Meanwhile, four women went missing.  Santa Ana Police Chief Carols Rojas reported that the two men “were not on our radar whatsoever.”  He explained that three of the women missing from Santa Ana, went completely off the grid.  They had been searching everywhere when the body of Jarrae Nykkole Estep was found on a conveyor belt at an Anaheim trash-sorting plant.  Once authorities realized that Jarrae had been murdered, and that she shared a similar profile with the other three missing women, they shifted the focus of their investigation. 

The ankle bracelets worn by the accused helped police identify Cano and Gordon as suspects and authorities suspect that there are more victims.

What are Special Circumstances Murders?

“Special Circumstances” are sentencing enhancements that can be used to increase a murder sentence and qualify it for the death penalty.   In 1972, in Furman v. Georgia,the United States Supreme Court found that applying the death penalty without any limitations was a violation of the 8^th Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.  In response, California enacted Penal Code 190.2.  This section sets out the “special circumstances” that qualify a first degree murder conviction for the death penalty.  The list is a bit all over the place because it is comprised of both legislative additions, and voter additions.  Some of the circumstances include; murder of police, murder of a judge, murder’s involving torture, driving by shootings, bombings and more.  In this case, the special circumstances include murder during the commission of rape, multiple murders, and lying in wait.