Man sentenced to death for killing women

Bay City News

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

OAKLAND, CA -- An Oakland man has been sentenced to death for murdering five young women and girls in the East Bay over a four-month span in 1985.

Prosecutor Jim Meehan said Tuesday that Anthony McKnight, 54, is "a sociopath" and said McKnight laughed when Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Horner sentenced him at the conclusion of a daylong hearing on Monday.

Jurors on Sept. 17 convicted McKnight, a former Navy-enlisted man who was assigned to the Alameda Naval Air Station, of five counts of first-degree murder and found him guilty of five special circumstances.

Three of the special circumstances were for committing murder during the course of a rape, one was for committing murder during sodomy and one was for committing multiple murders.

On Oct. 20, at the end of the penalty phase of McKnight's trial, the same jurors recommended the death penalty.

McKnight testified during his trial that he never met any of the women who were killed.

Horner spent nearly an hour listing the reasons why he thinks there was sufficient evidence to support the jury's finding that the aggravating evidence outweighed the mitigating evidence and that the death penalty is the appropriate punishment for McKnight, Meehan said.

Before being convicted of murdering the five women, McKnight was already serving a 63-year term in state prison for his 1987 conviction on 11 felony counts, including attempted murder, mayhem, kidnapping and forced oral copulation, for attacks on six prostitutes between 1984 and his arrest in January 1986.

After he began serving his prison sentence, authorities used new DNA analysis techniques to connect McKnight to the murders in his current case, which occurred in secluded locations in Oakland, Emeryville, Berkeley and Richmond between September and December 2005.

The women McKnight was convicted of killing are Diane Stone, 17; Talita Dixon, 13; Monique Franchone Davis, 18; Beverly Ann Bryant, 24; and Betty Lynn Stuart, 22.

Meehan said nine of the women's family members and friends spoke at McKnight's sentencing and said they believe he deserves the death penalty.

Before Horner sentenced McKnight, he denied two motions for a new trial that were filed and argued by McKnight's lawyers.

All death penalty sentencings are automatically reviewed by the California Supreme Court.

Justice Delayed In Oakland Serial Murder Case

By Anna Werner - CBS5.com

Oct 12, 2007

Sometimes the wheels of justice move so slowly they seem to have stopped. CBS 5 Investigates found a multiple murder case in the Bay Area that's dragged on for over two decades.

Marsha Dixon remembers her 13-year-old daughter Talita as "a funny, funny child. She used to make jokes and play games and stuff and just make you laugh," Dixon recalled.

On October 5, 1985, Talita left her home to walk to school by herself for the first time. Her mother says, even then, an unexplainable feeling of sadness overtook her as she waved goodbye to her daughter.

"I guess that was me knowing that was the last time I would see her alive," Dixon said.

Three days later, a jogger found Talita's body near a walking path in the Oakland Hills.

Her killer had raped her, stabbed her repeatedly, broken her neck and ripped an arm from her body.

Police soon found that Talita wasn't the only victim. A serial killer terrorized the community in late 1985, raping and murdering five girls and young women.

But Oakland police were stumped as to the killer's identity until police in nearby Emeryville began investigating a series of rapes against prostitutes.

Those attacks were "vicious", said Emeryville Chief of Police Ken James, who was a sergeant during the time of the investigation.

The killer "was playing a cat and mouse game," James said. "He would give them the opportunity to think they were getting away, and then come back and stab them."

Fortunately for Emeryville police, those prostitutes survived and gave descriptions of their attacker that led police to their suspect, 32-year-old Anthony McKnight. He was an enlisted man at Alameda Naval Air Station.

But James, the Emeryville police sergeant at the time, had a hunch that McKnight might also be Oakland's serial killer. He says he told his lead detective, "Go down to Oakland, sit down in the captain's office, let him know what you have, and don't leave until they recognize that this may be a connection."

Police arrested McKnight. And the killings stopped. But police say they did not have enough evidence to charge him with murder. Instead, he was convicted for the attacks against prostitutes in Emeryville and sentenced to 63 years in prison.

For Marsha Dixon, it seemed there would be no justice for Talita.

No justice, until June 1999. DNA technology, which was new at the time, gave police evidence that they announced tied McKnight to the murders of Talita Dixon and the four other victims.

After 14 years, prosecutors charged him with five counts of murder.

Marsha Dixon said she felt relieved. "When they had the DNA testing to prove that it was him, then I thought we were gonna move forward with the case" she said.

It seemed everybody was ready to go. Prosecutors filed the case and McKnight entered a plea of not guilty.

But that was eight years ago. And still, Anthony McKnight has yet to stand trial for those 1985 killings.

CBS 5 Investigates wanted to find out why.

Officials now involved with the case would not talk to CBS 5 on camera, but court records show delay after delay.

In fact, CBS 5 Investigates counted 46 court appearances over the past 8 years.

Those records show attorneys assigned to the case often getting replaced with new attorneys who asked for more time. And judges seemed in no apparent hurry to push things along; they readily granted continuances.

Meanwhile families of the victims say they're left in the dark.

"Emotionally you gear yourself up, thinking, at last we're going to move forward with this, at last you're going to do something, at last justice is done," said Dixon. "And then you're slapped in the face with, 'Well Marsha, we have to put the case back, I'm sorry, we have another case that has to come before this one.'"

Ken Bryant says he wants justice for his older sister Beverly Ann Bryant, the last of the five victims. "He's still alive, she's not," Bryant said.

The Oakland resident says until McKnight faces a jury, there can be no decision as to whether he deserves the death penalty.

And Bryant believes the victims and their families deserve better than to wait.

"All those people he killed, whatever, was--you know--was just nothing," he said. "Their lives were worth nothing."

Dixon says she's had to endure seeing McKnight in court more than once, including one occasion that particularly disturbs her. "He looked at me and laughed in my face," recalls Dixon.

Anthony McKnight will appear in court on Friday and prosecutors promise to bring him to trial next year. But 22 years after her daughter's death, Marsha Dixon says the promises sound empty.

"I will feel a sense of justice when this case is resolved and I see that he is sent to the electric chair for what he has done," Dixon said.

Anthony McKnight

June 28, 1999

OAKLAND, Calif. (APBnews.com) -- A convicted serial rapist who is already serving a 63-year prison sentence may now face the death penalty after police used DNA evidence to link him to a 14-year-old series of murders.

Anthony McNight, who in 1985 had been one of the top suspects in the slayings of five Bay-area women, was charged with the crimes last week after DNA samples taken from the sexually assaulted victims proved McNight committed the crimes, said Lt. Paul Berlin of the Oakland police.

The five women -- who ranged in age from 13 to 24 -- were all raped and killed in secluded areas in Oakland and several surrounding towns. Police suspected McNight was behind the killings, Berlin said, but because DNA testing was not commonly used then, the crimes went unsolved.

Sought closure for the families

In the meantime, McNight was convicted of committing a series of rapes in the area and sent to prison for 63 years. Nevertheless, police continued to pursue the 1985 murders, and after two years of scientific investigation they were able to file charges last week.

"We pursued this so there could be closure for the families," Berlin said, describing their reaction to the news as "relief."

The victims were: 22-year-old Betty Lynn Stuart of Oakland, a mother of one who was killed in Berkley; 17-year-old Diane Stone, who was found dead in Oakland; 13-year-old Talita Dixon, who was found on a secluded jogging trail in East Bay Regional Park; Monique Franchone Davis, 18, who was found dead behind a warehouse in Richmond; and Beverly Ann Bryant, 24, who was found in an Oakland schoolyard.

McNight, who is still lodged in Salinas Valley State Prison, was charged with five counts of murder with special circumstances Friday. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

Anthony McNight

June 28, 1999

Oakland, California, officials announced that a convicted serial rapist who is already serving a 63-year prison sentence was linked through DNA evidence to a 14-year-old series of murders. Anthony McNight, who in 1985 had been one of the top suspects in the slayings of five Bay-area women, was charged with the crimes after DNA samples taken from the sexually assaulted victims linked him to the killings.

The five women -- who ranged in age from 13 to 24 -- were all raped and killed in secluded areas in Oakland and surrounding areas. Police suspected McNight was behind the killings, but because DNA testing was not commonly used then, the crimes went unsolved.

In the meantime, McNight was convicted of committing a series of rapes in the area and sent to prison for 63 years. Nevertheless, police continued to pursue the 1985 murders, and after two years of scientific investigation they were able to file charges.

The victims were: 22-year-old Betty Lynn Stuart of Oakland, a mother of one who was killed in Berkley; 17-year-old Diane Stone, who was found dead in Oakland; 13-year-old Talita Dixon, who was found on a secluded jogging trail in East Bay Regional Park; Monique Franchone Davis, 18, who was found dead behind a warehouse in Richmond; and Beverly Ann Bryant, 24, who was found in an Oakland schoolyard.

Anthony McKnight

Born in 1954, McKnight was a career navy man stationed at Northern California's Alameda Naval Air Station since 1982. He lived off-base with wife and child, making friends easily among his neighbors.

Tenants of McKnight's apartment complex knew him as "one of the most outgoing people" in the building. To a man, they would be stunned by evidence connecting him with seven counts of homicide in 1985.

McKnight's small world collapsed on January 24, 1986, when he was picked up by police at home, booked on two counts of rape and four counts of attempted murder in a series of attacks dating from the previous September.

In custody, he was identified by five victims, including three prostitutes, who had been variously beaten, raped, and stabbed in attacks committed on September 16, October 31, December 27 (two assaults), and January 21, 1986.

Two days after his arrest, McKnight was named by lawmen as a suspect in seven "identical" rape slayings around the Oakland area, with evidence conforming to the pattern of attacks where victims had survived.

Michael Newton - An Encyclopedia of Modern Serial Killers - Hunting Humans

SEX: M RACE: B TYPE: T MOTIVE: Sex.

DATE(S): 1984-86

VENUE: Oakland, Calif.

VICTIMS: Seven suspected

MO: Rape slayer of women, including several prostitutes

DISPOSITION: Never charged with murder; 63 years for rape and attempted murder of six women who survived attacks, 1987.