Dean Carter

Carter was born in Nome in the Territory of Alaska on August 30, 1955, as the illegitimate son of a half-Eskimo woman. He was adopted by his stepfather, who served as police chief, fire chief, and justice of the peace in the community. At the age of 12, Carter was committed to a youth camp, which he attempted to flee from at least three times. He was later placed in a foster home. Carter served prison terms in Oregon for auto theft and in Alaska for burglary. During his incarceration in Alaska, Carter was trained as a television cameraman and video technician. Following his release in 1979, Carter worked with various television stations in Alaska. An individual who worked with Carter on an award-winning documentary on the Eskimo heritage recalled him as "just a normal guy, very attractive, very handsome". Around the same time, Carter met and married a woman who lived in the area; she gave birth to twin sons shortly thereafter. Around three years later, Carter's wife divorced him and received custody of their children. Carter continued working as a cameraman, briefly in Seattle, before flying to Hawaii in December 1983 to work as a deckhand on a yacht headed for San Diego, where he obtained a job as a deckhand on another boat and began dating bartender Susan Loyland. ==Background==

On February 25, 1984, 28-year-old Carter met Cathleen Tiner and Janette Ann Cullins at a café in Pacific Beach, San Diego; the latter would later become one of Carter's victims. Carter ordered a Harvey Wallbanger for each of the women, and they each gave him their phone number. Tiner and Cullins had dinner on a yacht with Carter and one of his friends on March 2. On March 4, Carter called Tiner and invited her to another outing, which she declined. On March 24, Carter called Tiner, who declined his invitation to "run off to Mexico and get married". That evening, he called another acquaintance, 18-year-old Polly Haisha, whom he had met at a party in February of that year. Haisha would later testify that she and Carter had spoken several times in the weeks after meeting, and that although Carter "was very nice" during their first phone conversation, he became more aggressive and irritated as she kept giving excuses to reschedule their date. During their last phone call, Carter informed Haisha that he would be arriving in San Diego the following day, and she rejected his offer to "quit school and come sail to France". After Carter began insulting his ex-wife, Haisha told Carter that she was no longer comfortable speaking with or seeing him and asked him not to call her again. ==Home invasions==

On the evening of March 25, Carter broke into the San Diego residence of Susan Loyland, who had planned to travel to Mexico for a date with Carter earlier that day, though she missed picking him up at a bus station and left without him. Steward had met Carter before the attack when he was staying at a neighbor's residence; she avoided him despite Carter attempting to befriend her. ==Murders==

On April 12, the bodies of Susan Lynn Knoll and Jillette Leonora Mills were found stacked inside a closed bedroom closet in the roommates' Culver City apartment by Mills' brother and a friend. Mills had been sexually assaulted, and each victim had died from asphyxia caused by strangulation. Knoll's vehicle was discovered one block from the apartment, though Mills' white Datsun 280 ZX automobile was missing, as were personal items belonging to both victims. Ronald C. Tulio—an employee of the United States Postal Service, the former boyfriend of Knoll, and an acquaintance of both Mills and victim Bonnie Guthrie—was arrested and detained by the Culver City Police Department later that day, and was in police custody at the time Janette Cullins is believed to have been murdered. Although Carter was ultimately never charged in relation to any of these cases, he was identified as a strong suspect in rapes in the Seattle area, and police intended to question Carter in connection with sexual assaults in Honolulu. ==Arrest==

On April 17, Carter was pulled over by an Arizona highway patrol officer who observed him driving Mills' vehicle erratically near Ash Fork, Arizona, and performed a traffic stop, which ended with Carter being arrested without incident. Inside the vehicle, police found various personal items belonging to Carter's victims. Carter was booked for driving under the influence, making unsafe lane changes, and driving without a license. ==Trials==

On July 16, 1989, during a trial in Los Angeles, Carter was convicted of the murders of Knoll, Mills, and Guthrie, as well as two rapes. He was sentenced to death via gas chamber three weeks later. At a subsequent trial in Ventura, Carter was convicted of Cullins' murder and received an additional death sentence, in addition to being found guilty of burglary and robbery of Cullins. Carter was also found guilty of rape, burglary, and robbery in connection with his attack on Susan Loyland's roommate, for which he received a 56-year sentence. Additionally, Carter received a consecutive sentence of 21 years and 8 months for his attack on Jennifer Rose Steward. ==Imprisonment==

During his time on death row, Carter wrote and published an Internet blog, "Deadman Talking", with the help of a friend outside of prison. Although Carter avoided discussing his case in the blog and largely focused on his life on death row and thoughts on current events, he maintained his innocence. According to Carter, he began writing the columns to provide "a reasonably coherent account of what it is like from where I sit". ==See also==