Ashton Kutcher reminded of testimony in Los Altos woman’s murder by Danny Masterson accuser

Kutcher had just begun dating Ashley Ellerin when she was slain in 2001 by Michael Gargiulo, who accused of being a serial killer nicknamed "The Hollywood Ripper" and is on death row at San Quentin.

The fall-out continues over Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis’ defense of Danny Masterson, along with outrage the couple sparked with a video they posted in which they tried to apologize for writing glowing character letters ahead of their friend’s sentencing last week to 30 years to life after being convicted of two of three counts of rape.

The verdict of the internet is that Kutcher and Kunis failed to show genuine remorse in their allegedly “lawyered” apology video, or authentic concern about “re-traumatizing” Masterson’s victims by calling him their “role model” and by appearing to minimize one key aspect of the women’s testimony — that their friend drugged them before attacking them.

It was “incredibly insulting and hurtful,” one of Masterson’s victims said to a journalist. Another accuser, Chrissie Carnell Bixler, went further, going on the offensive and telling Kutcher on Instagram Story: “You’re just as sick as your ‘mentor.'”

Even more, Bixler, who dated Masterson from 1995 to 2002, seemed to remind Kutcher of a particularly painful time in his life — when he was the witness in the 2001 murder of Ashley Ellerin, a 22-year-old model and fashion student from Los Altos. Bixler suggested he knew more than he told police.

“Dear Ashton, I know the secrets your ‘role model’ keeps for you,” Bixler wrote, not directly citing the murder case. “Ones that would end you. Did you forget I was there? You were on speaker phone that night you called Danny on February 21, 2001. I heard everything. I heard the plan.”

Bixler is no doubt referring to the Feb. 21, 2001 killing of Ellerin, who was found dead the next day in her Hollywood apartment with 47 stab wounds.

#HollywoodRipper – Pros opening: In 2001 Gargiulo met Ashley Ellerin. Actor #AshtonKutcher went to Ellerin's home to pick her up for a date in February 2001. She didn't answer the door. Her roommate found her the next day, stabbed to death. Ellerin was stabbed 47 times. pic.twitter.com/ABX0hGzTs0

— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) May 2, 2019

Kutcher, then a young actor starring with Masterson and Kunis in “That ’70s Show,” was supposed to take Ellerin on their first date to a post-Grammy Awards party. Kutcher told police, and he testified in court, that he assumed Ellerin had “bailed” on their date when she didn’t answer the door at her apartment that night at about 10:30 or 10:45 p.m. He said he left. Ellerin’s body was found the next day by a roommate.

Years later, Ellerin’s death was linked to air conditioner repairman Michael T. Gargiulo. Gargiulo was accused of being a serial killer nicknamed “The Hollywood Ripper,” who was suspected of killing two other women in 1993 and 2005 and of attempting to kill a Santa Monica woman in 2008. Gargiulo, who at one point lived near Ellerin’s rented bungalow north of Hollywood Boulevard, was tried in 2019, convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to death. He also is a suspect in the 1993 killing of a woman in his Illinois hometown and is currently incarcerated in San Quentin State Prison.

Bixler hasn’t offered further commentary on what Kutcher’s “plan” was with Masterson, which she said stemmed from the men’s phone conversation on the night of February 21, 2001. Her statement suggests that Kutcher was having some kind of crisis that night and needed to consult with his friend.

Kutcher told police that he didn’t learn that Ellerin was dead until the next day. That’s when he reached out to police, he said. He also explained he was worried because he had put his hands on her doorknob while trying to open the front door.

“My fingerprints are on this door and I was freaking out,” Kutcher said during his 40-minute testimony in a Los Angeles courtroom in May 2019, People reported. “I told (an officer), ‘Let me tell you what happened.’ ”

Kutcher also testified that he left Ellerin’s apartment after peering through a front window and seeing what he believed were red wine stains on the floor. Prosecutors said the stains probably were from blood and believe that Ellerin was killed earlier that evening, People reported. Ellerin spoke to Kutcher at 8:24 p.m. that night to confirm their plans, and prosecutors believe she was killed shortly after her call with the star.

It remains to be seen if Bixler will follow up on her claims about what she heard during Masterson’s phone call with Kutcher. But she’s letting people know that she’s still angry about Kutcher and Kunis’ stance on Masterson.

On Instagram stories, Bixler threw up old footage of Kutcher and Kunis being interviewed on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” during which Kunis recalled Kutcher making a “side bet” with Masterson about French-kissing her during a romantic scene on “That ’70s Show.” Kunis was 14 at the time.

Bixler and others have cited additional ways in which Kutcher showed questionable behavior in the past, specifically pointing to a 2003 video of the actor speaking on his MTV show “Punk’d” about actress Hilary Duff. In the video, Kutcher says Duff, who was a minor at the time, is “one of the girls that we’re all waiting for to turn 18. Along with the Olsen twins.”

In a Instagram Story post on Sunday. Bixler said, “You better believe that anger has a role in healing.”