- Ashton Kutcher testified during the trial of alleged serial killer Michael Gargiulo, AKA the “Hollywood Ripper,” on Wednesday.
- The actor had been romantically pursuing one of the killer’s victims in 2001, the court heard.
- Kutcher told the jury that when he arrived at the young woman’s house to pick her up for a date, he found there was nobody home. He would later learn that his date had been lying dead inside.
- Gargiulo is pleading not guilty to the murders of Ashley Ellerin and two other young women.
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Ashton Kutcher appeared in court on Wednesday to testify as a witness at the trial of Michael Gargiulo, who is accused of being the “Hollywood Ripper.”
Kutcher told a Los Angeles jury that he “freaked out” after learning that a woman he was due to go on a date was actually lying dead inside her home when he went to pick her up.
The former “Two and a Half Men” star said he’d visited the home of 22-year-old fashion design student Ashley Ellerin on the night of February 22, 2001, to pick her up for a date, the Los Angeles City News Service reported.
However, the actor arrived to find nobody answering the door, and assumed that his date had gone out after he’d turned up late.
"I didn't really think anything of it," Kutcher said.
He added that looking through the window, he saw what he thought was red wine spilt on the carpet, and noted that all the lights were still on.
"We believe that [the red wine] was actually blood," Prosecutor Dan Akemon told the court, "and Ashley had already been murdered."
"I remember the next day after I heard about what happened, I went to the detectives and said 'my fingerprints are on the door.' I was freaking out," Kutcher said, according to Sky News.
Ellerin was found dead with 47 stab wounds scattered across her body, KABC reported.
43-year-old Gargiulo is pleading not guilty to charges of the murder of Ellerin and two other young women.
Kutcher was just 23 at the time of Ellerin's death - at the time working on "That '70s Show." After divorcing from actress Demi Moore in 2013, he married "That '70s Show" co-star Mila Kunis, with whom he now has two children.