Ashton Kutcher thought he had been stood up by 'murdered' date
Hollywood star Ashton Kutcher thought he had been stood up for a date only to find out the next day the woman he was supposed to meet had been killed.
Kutcher has testified at a Los Angeles murder trial of 43-year-old Michael Gargiulo, who is charged with killing the actor’s date Ashley Ellerin and another woman.
The star told a court he went to pick up Ms Ellerin to go out for drink on a night in 2001 and left when she didn’t answer her door.
The 41-year-old actor said he looked into the window at the Hollywood home of the 22-year-old woman and saw what he believed were wine stains before leaving, thinking the fashion design student had already gone out for the night.
“I knocked on the door and there was no answer,” Kutcher said.
“I knocked again, and once again, no answer. At this point I pretty well assumed she had left for the night, and that I was late, and she was upset.”
Kutcher said he told detectives the next day he knew his fingerprints were on the door and he was “freaking out”.
“I remember the next day after I heard about what happened, I went to the detectives and said, ‘My fingerprints are on the door’,” Kutcher testified.
Ms Ellerin’s roommate found her dead in the hallway outside her bathroom.
Prosecutors allege Gargiulo, whom they called a “serial sexual-thrill killer”, entered the house and stabbed Ms Ellerin 47 times.
Gargiulo has pleaded not guilty to two charges of murder, and one of attempted murder in attacks between 2001 and 2008.
He is charged separately with killing an 18-year-old Illinois woman, and is awaiting trial there.
Kutcher, a 41-year-old veteran actor, is now a father of two married to actress Mila Kunis after divorcing first wife Demi Moore.
But he was testifying about a time nearly two decades earlier when he was a single man and a star-on-the-rise after three seasons of That ’70s Show.
Ms Ellerin has been described as Kutcher’s girlfriend, but he said on Wednesday she had been a casual acquaintance whom he had met a few months before at a party and was going to take her out.
Kutcher said he had called Ms Ellerin in the afternoon from the set of That ’70s Show, where he had just finished rehearsing.
He last spoke to her about 8.30pm when he said he was at a friend’s house and she was just getting out of the shower.
The actor said he did not arrive at her house until about 10.45pm.
He called her in the interim four times and could not reach her, but assumed it was bad phone service.
“Eighteen years ago, cell service wasn’t what it was today,” Kutcher said.
He said he did not leave messages every time he called.
“I was trying to take her on a date and didn’t want to seem eager,” Kutcher testified.
Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.
You can also follow us on Facebook, download the Yahoo News app from iTunes or Google Play and stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoo’s daily newsletter. Sign up here.
