force trauma than others, Butts stated that, in many instances, Bonin would escalate the level of beatings to which he subjected his victim if the youth resisted his sexual advances. Butts was brought before Orange County Municipal Court Judge Richard Orozco on November 14, 1980. On this date, he was formally charged with participating in three further murders committed in this county. His trial was scheduled for July 27, 1981. On July 31, Munro was arrested in his hometown of Port Huron, Michigan; he was extradited to California and charged with the murder of Wells. Munro pleaded innocent to all charges against him on August 14. On August 22, Miley – by this stage 19 years old – was arrested in Texas and subsequently charged by California authorities with the murders of Miranda and Macabe. Miley was arrested after having confessed to his culpability in the Miranda and Macabe murders in a recorded phone conversation with a friend (thus substantiating Bonin's earlier confession). He initially pleaded innocent to two charges of first-degree murder on December 18, but pleaded guilty at two separate pretrial hearings in May 1981. Preliminary hearings At a preliminary hearing held in Los Angeles County before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Julius Leetham on January 2, 1981, Bonin formally pleaded innocent to fourteen first-degree murder charges and numerous counts of sodomy, robbery and mayhem. In eleven of these indictments, a felony-murder-robbery special circumstance was also alleged. Bonin was ordered to return to court on January 7 for pretrial motions and the formal setting of a trial date. On the same date (January 2), Butts was arraigned on five counts of murder, in addition to three counts of robbery. The date of Butts' formal plea was delayed by Judge Leetham until January 7. Four days after his formal plea before Judge Leetham, Butts committed suicide by hanging himself with a towel in his cell. A subsequent coroner's investigation revealed Butts had unsuccessfully attempted to take his own life on at least four occasions prior to his arrest. His attorney, Joe Ingber, theorized that Butts' depressive state had been magnified by the impending release of transcripts of his client's testimony at the preliminary hearing, in which Butts had graphically described the torture the victims had endured prior to their murder. Three months prior to Butts' suicide, he had rejected an offer to plead guilty to all charges filed