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# SM repairman denies killing actor’s former girlfriend
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/sm-repairman-denies-killing-actors-former-girlfriend/
- Published: 2008-09-05T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T20:55:34.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Crime, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By DAILY PRESS STAFF*

LOS ANGELES A 32-year-old Santa Monica man pleaded not guilty Thursday to the stabbing deaths of two women, including a former girlfriend of actor Ashton Kutcher.

Michael Thomas Gargiulo, who has been jailed since July, was linked to the two killings — along with a 1993 slaying in suburban Chicago, where Gargiulo lived at the time — via DNA evidence, Santa Monica police said.

Los Angeles County prosecutors charged Gargiulo with two counts of murder for the Feb. 22, 2001 death of Ashley Ellerin and the Dec. 1, 2005, death of Maria Bruno in Monterey Park.

The murder charges include the special circumstance allegations of murder during the commission of a robbery, murder by means of lying in wait and multiple murders.

Prosecutors will decide at a later time whether to seek the death penalty, according to Jane Robison of the District Attorney’s Office. Gargiulo is also charged with first-degree burglary with a person present involving each of the two women.

“He is adamant he was not involved,” Gargiulo’s lawyer Anthony Salerno said.

The complaint alleges that he personally used a knife in the commission of all of the crimes, which also include an April 28 burglary and attempted murder of another woman in Santa Monica.

Ellerin, a 22-year-old fashion designer who dated Kutcher, was found stabbed to death in her Hollywood Hills home. Gargiulo is being held in lieu of $1.1 million bail.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 5, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/090508.pdf?ref=smdp.com)