Defendant in 4 Calif killings pleads not guilty

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) — A man charged with killing four Northern California women with matching first and last initials has pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder with special circumstances.

Joseph Naso entered the plea on Friday in a Marin County courtroom. The 77-year-old Naso is acting as his own attorney and asked that the case against him be thrown out.

In filing the motion for dismissal, Naso addressed what prosecutors have put forward as key evidence linking him to the deaths — hundreds of photographs of women in various sexual poses.

Naso told the judge there were no photos in his home showing dead women or women forced to pose or engage in bondage. He said all the women posed willingly.

The four women whose deaths Naso is charged with were killed in the 1970s and 1990s.