Serial Killer Who Allegedly Murdered Ashton Kutcher’s Former Girlfriend Ashley Ellerin to Begin Trial

Looks like Ashton Kutcher may finally get some closure.

Back in 2001, the father-of-two was dating Ashley Ellerin when she was brutally murdered in her own home in LA. Shortly after her incredibly gruesome death, friends pointed law enforcement towards Michael Gargiulo — aka “Mike the furnace man” — who was later arrested and charged with her murder, before confessing to killing as many as 10 other women.

Ashley Ellerin.

Gargiulo is currently waiting for his day in court after a pre-trial hearing was held late last week, on June 9, at Los Angeles Superior Court, with another meeting announced for pre-trial motions on Sept. 8. A trial is slated for the following month, some time in October.

In an interview with Radar, his lawyers Dan Nardoni and Dale Rubin revealed their plan to move forward with the case as swiftly as possible.

Michael Gargiulo.

“He’s changed lawyers a lot, but I’m not going to get into why,” Mr. Nardoni explained. “I’ve been on the case for about a year. We are moving as quickly as possible, but we have 36,000 pages of discoveries, and that doesn’t include photos and audio tapes.”

Since Gargiulo’s initial arrest on June 6, 2008, he’s been charged with three counts of murder — for the deaths of not only Ashley, but also of Michelle Murphy and Maria Bruno. In 2011, he was indicted for the murder of Tricia Pacaccio in his Illinois hometown.

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According to police documents, Ashley was stabbed more than 35 times, leaving her body nearly decapitated. In official court documents, the prosecutors described the accused murderer as “a serial, psychosexual thrill killer who engages in the systematic slaughter of beautiful women because he takes sexual pleasure from manipulating, stabbing, and killing his victims.”

It’s previously been speculated that Ashton will testify at Gargiulo’s trial, whenever it takes place.