Arraignment continued for alleged serial killer

11:10 UPDATE

A reputed serial killer whose victims allegedly include a Claremont woman appeared in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom this morning to be arraigned on two counts of murder.

John Floyd Thomas, Jr., known as the "Westside Rapist," did not enter a plea during the brief hearing. A new arraignment date was set for Aug. 25.

Thomas, 72, has been charged with two counts of murder in connection with two killings in Los Angeles from the 1970s.

Police investigators have said that Thomas has been linked by DNA to three additional killings from the 1970s and 1980s, and may have been responsible for as many as 25 more killings in Los Angeles County.

Police also say that Thomas, a former Chino resident, may have committed scores of unsolved rapes.

Among the killings linked to Thomas by DNA is the June 1986 rape and strangulation of 56-year-old Adrienne Askew of Claremont, who was killed in her apartment in the 600 block of West Bonita Avenue.

Police said they connected Thomas to the killings earlier this year, when a DNA sample he submitted to authorities in October was linked to the cold cases. Thomas was arrested in March at his home in south Los Angeles.

Thomas appeared in court this morning wearing an orange jail-issued jumpsuit, which indicates he is being held in protective custody, said a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

During this morning's brief court hearing, Thomas was sitting down, with his small frame hunched over. He was inside a cage-like enclosure where in-custody defendants are held in Commissioner Kristi Lousteau's courtroom at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center.

One of Thomas' defense attorneys, Alan Gelfand, requested that Thomas' arraignment hearing be continued to Aug. 25.

The defense requested the continuance because police investigations into Thomas' additional alleged killings are ongoing, and the defense wants to wait to see whether new charges are filed before proceeding with the case, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Robison, who spoke to reporters after the hearing, declined to answer additional questions on Thomas' case, citing the ongoing investigation.

Police say Thomas would target elderly women who lived alone. He would enter their homes, rape them, then strangle them to death while covering their faces with a piece of bedding such as a sheet or pillow case.

Several aspects of Askew's death in 1986 match police descriptions of Thomas' killing methods.

Thomas lived in Chino from 1983 to 1989, and worked during that time as a peer counselor at a hospital in Pomona. Thomas returned to the Los Angeles area after he was hired as a state insurance-claims adjuster in 1989.

Cold-case investigators for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department say Thomas is not considered a suspect in any of their 600-plus unsolved homicide cases.

Thomas is currently charged with killing Ethel Sokoloff, 68, and Elizabeth McKeown, 67, both of Los Angeles.

Sokoloff was killed in 1972 -- prosecutors allege Thomas also raped and robbed her. Thomas raped and killed McKeown in 1976, prosecutors allege.

Click here to view Tuesday's post on Thomas' case.