Michael Hubert Hughes: The Serial Killer
Early Life
Michael Hubert Hughes was born in 1958 in Michigan. His father left the family shortly after his birth, and at the age of 5, Hughes moved to California with his mother and sister. He grew up in Pasadena and Los Angeles, where he attended Los Angeles High School. Hughes lived in a dysfunctional family, with an alcoholic mother who regularly beat him and his sister. During his teen years, he was hospitalized multiple times for nervous breakdowns. In 1976, at age 17, he enlisted in the Navy, where he worked as a shipmate and eventually as a gunner's mate.
First Trial
In December 1993, Michael Hughes, now a security guard, was arrested in Culver City, California. In 1998, he was convicted and given a life sentence without parole for the strangulation murders of four women and girls in California. The victims were:
- Teresa Ballard, 26, found in Los Angeles' Jesse Owens County Park on September 23, 1992.
- Brenda Bradley, 38, found in an alley in Culver City on October 5, 1992.
- Terri Myles, 33, found in an alley in Culver City on November 8, 1993.
- Jamie Harrington, 29, found in an alley in Culver City on November 14, 1993.
Second Trial
On July 3, 2008, Hughes was charged with sexually assaulting and strangling two women and two teenage girls in the Los Angeles area between 1986 and 1993 after homicide detectives linked him to DNA samples from the victims using new forensic technologies. The victims were:
- Yvonne Coleman, 15, found in a park in Inglewood, California on January 22, 1986.
- Verna Williams, 36, found in a stairwell in Los Angeles on May 26, 1986.
- Deanna Wilson, 30, found in a garage in Los Angeles on August 30, 1990.
- Deborah Jackson, 32, found in Los Angeles on June 25, 1993.
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