Schools

Arraignment Postponed in Cold Case Slayings

Edric Dashell Gross is due back in court Sept. 29.

Arraignment was postponed Friday for the man accused in the sexual assaults and strangling deaths of two transient women in 2001 and 2002.

Eric Dashell Gross, 47, was arrested Wednesday in Los Angeles after a five-year investigation by the Santa Monica Police Department. Authorities said they used DNA evidence to link Gross to the killings of Jacqueline Ovsak and Dana Caper.

The bodies of both women were discovered by passersby in areas where the victims frequented.

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Gross was due to be arraigned Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court on capital murder charges but the hearing was postponed until 8:30 a.m. Sept. 28. He also faces two special circumstance allegations of rape and burglary of one victim, making him eligible for the death penalty.

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Prosecutors said they will to wait until the case moves closer to trial before  determining whether to seek Gross's execution.

Ovsak, 42, was killed in the spring of 2001. Her body was found by construction workers in an abandoned building in the 1500 block of Seventh Street.

Caper's body was found Oct. 29, 2002, on the side of the bluffs in the 800 block of Palisades Park. She was 41.

— City News Service contributed to this report.

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