Serial killer Juan Corona confesses

A killer convicted of murdering 25 transients in the orchards north of Yuba City 40 years ago confessed Monday during a parole hearing, and raised questions about additional killings.

Juan Corona, 77, incarcerated at Corcoran State Prison and suffering from dementia, was denied parole after a two-hour hearing.

"He did admit to the killings," said Sutter County Assistant District Attorney Jana McClung, who attended the hearing. Corona told a psychiatrist in July that he killed the transients — who had been hired as temporary farm labo ers — because they had been trespassing.

Corona's testimony Monday included details about two victims whose descriptions did not match 25 bodies that Sutter County sheriff's detectives uncovered in shallow graves during late spring in 1971.

"He said he used a kitchen knife to kill his first victim, and he cut himself doing it," said McClung. "He said he shot his second victim."

"I don't know if that means there are others out there," McClung said.

Corona told the hearing board that he used a machete on the others.

He told a psychiatrist a year ago that his victims had been winos who were not doing their jobs, according to McClung. "He thought he was doing the right thing. He was asked if he could name his victims, and he said, 'No.'"

Corona was convicted in 1973 of 25 counts of murder and received 25 life sentences, though investigators at the time believed there were many more victims whose bodies have never been found. The trial was moved to Fairfield because of pretrial publicity.

That conviction was thrown out in 1978 after a court ruled that Corona's attorney had not provided an adequate defense.

A second jury trial in Hayward commenced in February 1982 and resulted in a second conviction in September of that year.

Corona's attorney Leon Harris argued that his client's age and the fact that he had not had a violent incident in more than 10 years be considered at the hearing.

Corona is ambulatory, and walked in to the hearing on his own, according to McClung.

"There were times when he would go off rambling, and he had to be redirected," she said.

The parole had been postponed numerous times since December 2009 for health reasons and changes in legal representation. Monday was his sixth bid for parole from Corcoran State Prison. He will be eligible for parole again in five years.

McClung said Corona had no specific plans in the event of parole. He mentioned staying with family members in Arizona, and was told that any potential parole would require him to stay in California.