A man being held as a suspect in a serial killing case was indicted on 74 felony charges, including nine murders blamed on the Phoenix area's so-called Baseline Killer, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
The charges against Mark Goudeau, which also include 15 counts of sexual assault and 11 counts of kidnapping, stem from a series of crimes committed between August 2005 and June 2006.
"The reign of terror has ended. The quest for justice has just begun," prosecutor Andrew Thomas said.
Corwin Townsend, Goudeau's lawyer, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment on the charges Tuesday afternoon.
Police announced last month that the man they believed to be the Baseline Killer was in custody and recommended that Goudeau be charged with murder and other crimes.
Goudeau, an ex-convict who most recently had worked in construction, had been in jail since September, when he arrested in two sexual assaults that were attributed to the Baseline Killer. At the time, police stopped short of pronouncing Goudeau the Baseline Killer while they built a case against him.
But last month, police said that investigators had collected forensic evidence — including DNA and ballistics — and other evidence implicating Goudeau in the killings.
The Baseline Killer case originally included eight killings. A ninth killing was publicly revealed in December. Most of the victims, all but one of them women, were killed going about their daily activities, such as leaving work, washing a car or waiting at a bus stop.
Police have said the killer usually struck at night and wore disguises, which included a wig of dreadlocks and a fisherman's hat. The name Baseline Killer came from the Phoenix street where some of the earliest crimes were committed.
About half of the Baseline Killer attacks occurred within three miles of the Phoenix home Goudeau shared with his wife. One woman was killed just around the corner.
Goudeau had previously served 13 1/2 years in prison for three aggravated assaults, armed robbery and kidnapping before being paroled in 2004. He once blamed his history of violence on a weakness for crack.
The Baseline Killer was one of two serial killer cases that spread fear across the Phoenix area in recent months.
In August, police arrested two roommates in what was dubbed the Serial Shooter case. The two men are accused of driving around the city and its suburbs at night, firing at people randomly from a car. Seven people were killed.
The defendants are awaiting trial.