On June 22, 1999, Juan Chavez, 35, was handed five consecutive life sentences for killing five gay men between 1986 and 1989.Strangely Chavez said he killed the men in an attempt to stop the spread of AIDS. The crusading killer agreed to the life sentence under a plea bargain that saved him from the death penalty.
Prosecutor Mike Duarte said Chavez allowed himself to be picked up at locations frequented by gay Hispanic men and used the promise of sex to lure the men to their homes. Then, he tied them up forced them to disclose their ATM access codes, strangled them with exercise ropes, neckties and electrical cords, and stole their vehicles. Prosecutors believe Chavez may have killed other gay men.
The killing spree began in July 1986 when 46-year-old Alfred Rowswell was found strangled in his Los Angeles apartment. Rowswell's car was found later that year in Utah, but fingerprints on the windows initially proved inconclusive. Then in 1989, Chavez killed four men in two months: 57-year-old Ruben Panis, 48-year-old Donald Kleeman, 46-year-old Michael Allen Cates and 52-year-old Leo Hildebrand.
Los Angeles police detectives found a photo of a man using one of the victims' ATM cards and circulated it at local gay bars. But without more evidence the cases went nowhere. Detectives got a lucky break in 1994, when they finally matched a fingerprint on Rowswell's car to a prisoner in Washington state. The inmate said he got the car from Chavez. Detectives tracked down Chavez who was in prison for an unrelated 1996 kidnapping and obtained a confession from him.