Washington, December 04: A Suspected US serial killer today pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to murdering 11 women whose remains were found in and around his Ohio home, prosecutors said.
Court officials in the city of northern city of Cleveland said Anthony Sowell, 50, pleaded not guilty to some 85 counts in the case, among them murder, kidnapping, rape and assault.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the alleged crimes, which they said took place between June 2007 and June 2009.
“A jury will have to say whether or not the defence has proved that he’s insane,” prosecutor Bill Mason said.
“If that’s what the jury did, instead of going to prison then he’ll go to a mental hospital and be reevaluated every couple of years.”
The bodies were discovered when a woman told police that Sowell had lured her to his house, raped and strangled her with a cord and then let her go when she regained consciousness.
Police investigating the allegations found several bodies rotting in the back garden and other remains inside the house.
Mr Sowell, who was arrested on October 31, has lived at the house since he was released from prison in 2005 after serving 15 years for attempted rape.
He told his girlfriend Lori Frazier, the niece of Cleveland’s mayor, who lived with him in the house between 2005 and 2008, that the stench from the rotting corpses was due to a sausage factory next door.
—Agencies