BR man arrested in deaths of three women, suspect in fourth
By MELINDA DESLATTE Associated Press writer
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Less than a year after one man was arrested for the serial slayings of seven women, Baton Rouge police today accused a second man of being a serial killer, arrested in the murders of three women since 1999 and a suspect in the death of a fourth woman.
Sean Vincent Gillis, 41, of Baton Rouge, was arrested in a SWAT team raid early this morning at his home. He was booked on three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of ritualistic acts in the deaths of Katherine Hall, 29, Johnnie Mae Williams, 45, and Donna Bennett Johnston, 43.
A DNA swab from Gillis' mouth matched DNA evidence collected from the women's bodies, according to police, who refused to give further details about the DNA. "The goal now is to convict this man and, hopefully, to execute him," said Lt. Col. Greg Phares, with the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office.
No court date was announced.
While police had said they suspected one man likely was responsible for the murders of all three women, they had shied away from using the term serial killer until Gillis' arrest.
Hall was slain in January 1999, Williams was killed in October 2003, and Johnston's body was found Feb. 27. Each woman had an arrest record for prostitution, drugs or both, and law enforcement officials formed a task force to track the murderer.
The women were killed in a similar manner and their bodies were cut and mutilated, according to Gillis' arrest warrant. Police said they tracked Gillis through tire tracks left at the site where Johnston's body was discovered, declining to give further details.
Gillis also was being investigated in the death of Hardee Schmidt, 52, who disappeared from her Baton Rouge neighborhood while jogging in 1999, Phares said at a news conference today, adding police planned to review other unsolved murder cases to see if Gillis was involved.
"We will look at any murder in the Baton Rouge area that is similar to the murders he has been charged with," Phares said.
Authorities said Gillis was unemployed and had previous arrests for trespassing and drunken driving but gave no other details.
Gillis lived in a one-story house with pink trim in a neighborhood with a blend of working people and college students from nearby Louisiana State University.
John Bullock, a neighbor, said he didn't know Gillis but often noticed people going in and out of the home "at all times of the day, early in the morning." Bullock said he saw officers storm into the home about 1:30 a.m. today and heard a boom that deputies later told him had been a concussion grenade.
In the other serial killings case, police arrested Derrick Todd Lee in May 2003 and said DNA linked him to the murders of seven south Louisiana women between April 1998 and March 2003, plus an attack on an eighth woman. Lee has been indicted in three killings and is charged in the other attack.
He has pleaded innocent, and his first trial is scheduled to begin May 10. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.