Steven Dean Gordon

Steven Dean Gordon (born February 3, 1969) is an American serial killer and sex offender who, together with accomplice Franc Cano, killed at least four sex workers in Santa Ana and Anaheim, California from 2013 to 2014. Convicted and sentenced to death for his crimes, Gordon admitted responsibility for at least one further murder, with which he has never been charged.

Early life Steven Dean Gordon was born on February 3, 1969, in Lynwood, California, but his family moved to Norwalk shortly after his birth. He spent most of his childhood and youth in poverty, and due to some health problems, Gordon had to skip one year of school. While at school, he was considered unpopular and occasionally bullied due to his short stature, which led him to develop an overtly aggressive demeanor and a Napoleon complex. While he initially pleaded guilty to the charge, he later retracted it, which resulted in a guilty verdict and a sentence of 15 months imprisonment. Gordon insisted on his innocence, claiming that he had only pleaded guilty because his girlfriend threatened to break up with him if he didn't, and that his sister had made the accusation up. He lured his daughter into his car with the promise of giving her candy, then threatened Lewis with a stun gun and forced her inside. After tying up and gagging her, Gordon drove out of the state to Nevada. This stemmed from an investigation launched on March 14 of that year, after local police received a call from a recycling center whose employees had discovered the body of a woman among a pile of trash on a conveyor belt. The victim was identified as 21-year-old Jarrae Nykkole Estepp, a sex worker from Oklahoma City who had arrived in the state just days prior. Not long after, investigators from Santa Ana contacted their colleagues in Anaheim and launched a joint investigation into the disappearances of three other women: 34-year-old Josephine Monique Vargas (last seen October 24, 2013), 28-year-old Martha Anaya (last seen November 12, 2013) and 20-year-old Las Vegas native Kianna Rae Jackson (last seen October 6, 2013). Fingerprints were found on a used can of foam, and an examination determined that it belonged to a resident of Anaheim who worked as a plastic window installer. On the day Estepp's corpse was supposedly dumped inside, the man was installing windows on a storefront next to the auto shop where Steven Gordon worked. While reviewing a database of sex offenders with ankle bracelet monitors, the investigators learned that both Gordon and Cano were at each respective location when each respective victim disappeared, which included the dumpster.

In late April 2014, during an interrogation that lasted more than 13 hours, Gordon confessed to committing five murders, but as he could not remember the fifth victim's name, her identity could not be established. Initially, he provided investigators with two different versions of how things had transpired: in the first one, he insisted that he premeditated the killings and that Cano had minimal involvement, as he did not know what would happen once they got into the car. This greatly angered Gordon, who subsequently attacked, raped and killed her. In addition, another piece of evidence was a transcript of text messages that was seized from both men's phones. In late November 2014, both Gordon and Cano were charged with the four murders in a preliminary hearing. Shortly before the trial's beginning, the Orange County Prosecutor's Office offered a plea deal: in exchange for pleading guilty to the murder charges, they would drop the rape charges and not seek the death penalty, but Gordon rejected their proposal.

The prosecution's main evidence at trial were the DNA test conducted on Estepp's body; computer records of the ankle bracelet monitor information and a print of the text messages exchanged with Cano, during which the pair discussed their victims, as well as how to kidnap and murder them.

On December 15, Gordon was found guilty on all counts by jury verdict, but remained calm and unresponsive during the proceedings. Gordon himself praised the jury for their decision, refused to ask for leniency from the court, and expressed apparent remorse for his actions.

In April 2017, Anaheim police claimed to have identified Gordon's fifth victim. In his original statements, he had claimed that she was a black sex worker the pair had picked up in Compton in mid-February 2014, and that she was short, slender, in her early 20s, with black hair and several tattoos. After investigating many missing persons reports, the potential victim was identified as 19-year-old Sable Alexandria Pickett, who was declared missing on February 14, 2014. According to her family, Pickett had graduated from Compton High School in 2013 and planned to enlist in the Army, but after she was rejected, she left home and became a sex worker in the Compton area. while Cano pled guilty to four murders on December 15, 2022, and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.