BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
After suffering from a brain embolism in September, alleged serial killer John Getreu, 76, is ready to stand trial, a prosecutor said today (Nov. 2).
Despite Getreu’s medical improvements, jury selection for his trial is slated to begin Jan. 11, according to District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. Opening statements are expected to begin on Jan. 25.
Wagstaffe said the attorneys involved in the case did not want to conduct the trial during the holidays.
Getreu was supposed to go on trial in late September, but that was put off when he suffered from a brain embolism and had to undergo surgery.
He landed in the hospital a week before his trial for the strangulation murder of Janet Ann Taylor, 21, who was killed March 25, 1974, as she was leaving the Stanford campus. Her body was dumped on Sand Hill Road near Woodside in San Mateo County.
Taylor was the daughter of former Stanford athletic director Chuck Taylor. Her death was one of five murders on or near the Stanford campus between 1972 and 1976.
Getreu is later scheduled to go to trial in Santa Clara County for the Feb. 13, 1973 murder of Leslie Marie Perlov, a Stanford grad student and a law clerk, was found strangled in the hills west of campus.
He was arrested in November 2018 by Santa Clara County deputies at his Hayward home after evidence from the Perlov case was re-tested for DNA, similar to how the Golden State Killer was found.
Getreu is in jail in lieu of no bail and is expected to appear in court on Jan. 7 for some motions preceding jury selection.
