Dean Carter

This article is about the American spree killer. For the English author, see Dean Vincent Carter. For the American singer also known as Dean Carter, see Arlie Neaville.

Dean Carter
Born	Dean Phillip Carter (1955-08-30) August 30, 1955 Nome, Territory of Alaska, U.S.
Occupation	Television cameraman
Criminal status	Incarcerated
Conviction(s)	Murder Rape Burglary Robbery
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Victims	4 confirmed, 1 suspected
Date	April 10–14, 1984
Country	United States
State(s)	California
Location(s)	San Diego, Ventura, Culver City
Date apprehended	April 17, 1984
Imprisoned at	San Quentin State Prison

Dean Phillip Carter (born August 30, 1955) is an American convicted spree killer and rapist who was sentenced to death for the murders of four women in California in April 1984. Carter has also been implicated in the death of a fifth woman, and is suspected of at least 30 murders and four rapes committed on the West Coast of the United States.

Background

During Carter's trials, several witnesses testified that he had spent much of his childhood and adolescence in orphanages and foster homes, and was incarcerated during his early adulthood. Carter is part Eskimo. Prior to his crime spree, Carter had served one year for a burglary conviction in Alaska.

On February 25, 1984, Carter met Cathleen Tiner and Janette Ann Cullins at a café in Pacific Beach, San Diego; the latter would later become one of Carter's victims. Carter ordered a Harvey Wallbanger for each of the women, and they each gave him their phone number. Tiner and Cullins had dinner on a yacht with Carter and one of his friends on March 2. On March 4, Carter called Tiner and invited her to another outing, which she declined.

On March 24, 28-year-old Carter called Tiner, who declined his invitation to "run off to Mexico and get married". That evening, he called another acquaintance, 18-year-old Polly Haisha, whom he had met at a party in February of that year. Haisha would later testify that she and Carter had spoken several times in the weeks after meeting, and that although Carter "was very nice" during their first phone conversation, he became more aggressive and irritated as she kept giving excuses to reschedule their date. During their last phone call, Carter informed Haisha that he would be arriving in San Diego the following day, and she rejected his offer to "quit school and come sail to France". After Carter began insulting his ex-wife, Haisha told Carter that she was no longer comfortable speaking with or seeing him and asked him not to call her again.

Home invasions

On the evening of March 25, Carter broke into the San Diego residence of Susan Loyland, a bartender he was in a sexual relationship with; Loyland had traveled to Mexico earlier that day. Carter, armed with a knife, raped Loyland's roommate/tenant and forced her to perform fellatio on him. Carter also robbed both Loyland and her roommate of tip money and the latter's car keys, as well as hogtying her with her pantyhose before leaving. The woman managed to free herself with a knife, and a neighbor who heard her cries for help called police. This victim would later testify that she had met Carter prior to being attacked by him.

In the early hours of March 29, Carter, wearing a red bandana over his face and armed with a butcher knife, broke into the Ventura apartment of 22-year-old Jennifer Rose Steward, whom he proceeded to sexually assult and rape for around five hours, as well as strangling her into unconsciousness when she attempted to escape twice. Steward pretended to sympathize with her attacker to prevent him from becoming more violent, and convinced him to untie her by asking for a kiss. When Carter finally left at dawn, Steward waited for several minutes before running to a neighbor for help. Steward had met Carter before the attack when he was staying at a neighbor's residence; she avoided him despite Carter attempting to befriend her.

Murders

On April 12, the bodies of Susan Lynn Knoll and Jillette Leonora Mills were found stacked in a closed bedroom closet in the roommates' Culver City apartment. Mills had been sexually assaulted, and each victim had died from asphyxia caused by strangulation. Knoll's vehicle was discovered one block from the apartment, though Mills's Datsun 280 ZX automobile was missing, as were personal items belonging to both victims. Ronald C. Tulio, an employee of the United States Postal Service, the former boyfriend of Knoll, and an acquaintance of both Mills and victim Bonnie Guthrie, was arrested and detained by the Culver City Police Department on April 12, and was in police custody at the time Janette Cullins is believed to have been murdered.

Also on April 12, the body of Bonnie Ann Guthrie was discovered on the floor of her apartment in Culver City. Like the previous victims, she had been sexually assaulted, she had died from asphyxia caused by strangulation, and personal items were missing from her apartment. Guthrie's purse was recovered by San Diego police officers on April 14.

On April 14, the body of Janette Anne Cullins was found in the bedroom closet of her San Diego apartment. Her cause of death was the same as that of the other victims, and the presence of woodchips on the floor near the front door indicated that someone had pried it open. Cheri Phinney, who had moved into Cullins's apartment in the second week of April, would later testify that they had been unexpectedly visited by Carter on April 12, who stayed for around an hour. On the evening of the following day, Carter visited Cathleen Tiner, informing her that Cullins had "stood [him] up today".

Video surveillance captured Carter withdrawing $60 from Cullins's bank account at an ATM in Point Loma, San Diego, wearing a sweater knitted by Bonnie Guthrie. On the day her body was discovered, Cullins's father noticed her vehicle parked more than a block away from her apartment. On the morning of that same day, Cullins's wallet was discovered in bushes in Point Loma, San Diego; it contained driver's licenses and identification cards belonging to both Cullins and Guthrie.

Carter is believed to also be responsible for the death of a fifth woman, Tok Chum Kim, whom he met at a bar in Lafayette on April 1, 1984. Kim's decomposed body was found on April 13, and her vehicle and some of her personal items were missing. Kim's vehicle was discovered parked in front of the apartment where the bodies of Knoll and Mills were found.

The names of Susan Loyland, Janette Cullins, Cathleen Tiner, Susan Knoll, and Polly Haisha were all later discovered in Carter's address book.

Arrest

On April 17, Carter was pulled over by an Arizona highway patrol officer who observed him driving Mills's vehicle erratically near Ash Fork, Arizona, and performed a traffic stop, which ended with Carter being arrested. Inside the vehicle, police found various personal items belonging to the deceased victims, including Kim.

Trials

During a trial in Los Angeles in 1989, Carter was convicted of the murders of Knoll, Mills, and Guthrie, and was subsequently sentenced to death. At a subsequent trial in Ventura, Carter was convicted of Cullins's murder and received an additional death sentence, in addition to being found guilty of burglary and robbery of Cullins. Carter was also found guilty of rape, burglary, and robbery in connection with his attack on Susan Loyland's roommate, for which he received a 56-year sentence. Carter also received a consecutive sentence of twenty-one years and eight months for his attack on Jennifer Rose Steward.

Imprisonment

During his time on death row, Carter wrote and published an Internet blog, "Deadman Talking", with the help of a friend outside of prison. Although Carter avoided discussing his case in the blog and largely focused on his life on death row and thoughts on current events, he maintained his innocence. According to Carter, he began writing the columns to provide "a reasonably coherent account of what it is like from where I sit".

Carter claimed ineffective assistance of counsel, citing multiple disagreements with his attorneys, though his sentence was upheld in a ruling on December 26, 2019.

See also

• Capital punishment in California
• List of death row inmates in the United States