Trial: DNA evidence links man to murders

Los Angeles | DNA evidence ties a former pizza deliverer accused of being one of the city's most prolific serial killers to the slayings of 10 women and an unborn fetus, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday at the start of his trial.

The women's killings happened over 11 years. Deputy District Attorney Bobby Grace said Chester D. Turner was finally caught after he was arrested in 2002 on charges of raping a woman in Los Angeles.

Authorities charged Turner, 40, in October 2004. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

Turner's DNA was submitted to cold-case investigators and each unsolved murder was linked to Turner, Grace told the jury.

Police allege he accosted most of his victims on a street in crime-plagued South Los Angeles, raping and strangling them in a killing spree that extended from 1987 to 1998.

Turner has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of murder. His defense was expected to explain the DNA evidence by saying he was a drug dealer whose customers were mainly prostitutes who often paid in trade.