‘I WAS FREAKING OUT’

Ashton Kutcher Testifies at Accused Serial Killer’s Murder Trial

The actor had tried to pick up Ashley Ellerin for a date the day before he found out she’d been killed.

Actor Ashton Kutcher testified at accused serial killer Michael Gargiulo’s capital murder trial on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reports. In court, Kutcher recalled how he approached the door of 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin in 2001 to pick her up for their first date. “I knocked on the door. There was no answer. Knocked again. And once again, no answer,” he said. “At this point I pretty well assumed she had left for the night, and that I was late, and she was upset.” Kutcher said he peeked inside her window before he left and saw a messy room with red wine on the floor. However, the actor said he thought nothing of it since Ellerin had hosted a housewarming party just a week before. The next day, Kutcher said he found out Ellerin had been killed and spoke to police. “I was freaking out,” he said, noting that his fingerprints were found on Ellerin’s door.

Gargiulo—whom prosecutors called a “serial sexual-thrill killer”—allegedly entered Ellerin’s home one night in February 2001, and stabbed her 47 times, nearly decapitating her. Gargiulo has been linked to several other killings and attacks between 1993 and 2008 in Chicago and Los Angeles. He faces two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, and has pleaded not guilty.