DA to Seek Death Penalty in 6 California Murders Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a former Marine accused of murdering four homeless men and a woman and her son in California, authorities said Monday. Itzcoatl Ocampo, 24, is awaiting a Sept. 10 trial on six counts of murder with special circumstances of multiple murders and lying in wait. Ocampo, who has pleaded not guilty, was discharged from the Marines in June 2010. He is accused of murdering a school friend's mother and brother in October 2011, and four homeless men between Dec. 20, 2011, and Jan. 13, 2012, in Orange County. Most of the victims were stabbed dozens of times. The district attorney's office has described the homeless slayings as a serial thrill-kill spree. A grand jury transcript released in March says Ocampo told investigators he planned to kill 16 people to follow in the footsteps of University of Texas tower killer and fellow former Marine Charles Whitman. He said he felt the need to kill after he was confined to driving a water truck and a dirt truck on a military base in Iraq, the document states. A police detective testified that Ocampo said he entered the Marine Corps with the purpose of seeing combat and becoming a killer and that in order to become a real Marine he needed to kill.