A grand jury in Santa Ana on Thursday indicted two registered sex offenders on four counts of special-circumstance murder in the deaths of four women.
Steven Dean Gordon, 45, and Franc Cano, 28, both of Anaheim, were each charged with four felony counts of special circumstances murder during the commission of rape, kidnapping, lying in wait, and multiple murders, according to a news release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
They were also each charged with four felony counts of forcible rape, the release stated.
Gordon and Cano were arrested in April after authorities linked the naked body of 21-year-old Jerrae Nykkole Estepp, found at a recycling facility, to the disappearance of three other women.
Together, the pair allegedly killed Estepp, of Oklahoma; Kianna Jackson, 20, of Las Vegas; Josephine Monique Vargas, 34, of Santa Ana; and Martha Anaya, 28, also of Santa Ana.
The defendants were scheduled to be arraigned Friday.
If convicted, they faced a minimum sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole.
They were also eligible for the death penalty.