Prolific serial killer pleads guilty to 2 Cincinnati slayings

CINCINNATI (FOX19/AP) - A prolific serial killer who has admitted to more than 90 killings across the U.S. pleaded guilty Friday in two women’s slayings in Cincinnati

Samuel Little, 79, appeared via teleconference from a state prison in California where he’s serving multiple life sentences.

Hamilton County Judge Melba Marsh asked the 79-year-old man a series of questions about giving up his rights to trial that Little answered affirmatively: sometimes with “Yes, ma’am.”

Marsh then sentenced him to two consecutive terms of 15 years to life.

Little recently confessed in May to the murders of two women, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said.

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Little’s first victim, Anna Stewart, was found in Grove city in October of 1981.

“She was a 33-year-old unmarried mother of three. She had a drug problem and she did engage in prostitution from time to time,” Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor Mark Piepmeier said.

He killed women by strangulation.

“That was the way he enjoyed his pleasure was to strangle these girls,” Deters said back in June. “He specifically looked for girls with a certain neck type that he liked and that’s why he did it."

Stewart was killed here but because it was raining, Little put her in his trunk and drove her to Grove City, where he dumped her body, Deters said.

Little’s second victim is an unidentified woman police refer to as Jane Doe.

Authorities aren’t sure where when she was killed or her identity.

Little was permitted to sketch portraits of his victims and these are the only images that police have to identify the second woman who Little called “the girl by the highway.”

“His purpose of picking them up was to kill them and he described it as his sexual gratification was in manual strangulation. The actual... his bare hands on the bare necks. That’s what actually got him sexually aroused and that’s why he did this,” Piepmeier said.

“It’s been quite disgusting what’s been uncovered here,” Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said.

Deters says he want to make sure Little is brought to Ohio if he is ever released in California.

“California has life without parole on him right now on three counts. But California is frankly so goofy you don’t know what they’re going to do,” Deters said.

And that is why Deters says he wants Little’s convictions in Cincinnati to run consecutively.

“If they get some whacked out governor and he terminates his sentence we want to bring him back because we want justice for our two victims here in Cincinnati,” Deters said.

Little showed no remorse in court and his attorney says he’s not sure if he has any.

“The only way you can say that is that he pled and that shows some responsibility for doing it. As for regret? I don’t know," Little’s attorney Norm Aubin said.

After he pleaded guilty to the Cincinnati murders, Little was sentenced for killing two women in Cleveland.

He pleaded guilty Friday afternoon via Skype to two counts of aggravated murder for killing 21-year-old Mary Jo Peyton in 1984 and 32-year-old Rose Evans in 1991.

Cuyahoga County Judge John Russo sentenced Little in Cleveland to a minimum of 40 years in prison to be served after the sentences he’s received in Texas, California and Cincinnati.

One of Little’s attorneys read a statement on Little’s behalf during the brief hearing saying Little “thoroughly apologizes” for the slayings and wants to bring closure to the women’s families.

Copyright 2019 WXIX. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.