Grim Sleeper: Judge allows DNA evidence gathered at restaurant

A judge on Tuesday ruled that DNA evidence that led to alleged Grim Sleeper serial killer Lonnie Franklin Jr. was lawfully obtained via plates and utensilsseized by a police officer who posed as a restaurant busboy.

Appearing on the stand for the first time, Franklin testified that he was attending a birthday party that day in July 2010at John's Incredible Pizza in Buena Parkwith one of his employees and her three daughters when the DNA evidence was gathered.

Days later on July 7, he was arrested by Los Angeles police.

MAP: Grim Sleeper killings, 1985-2007

Franklin's attorneys, Seymour Amster and Louisa Pensanti, had argued that the busboy cleared their client's plates before he had finished first a pizza and then a chocolate cake and therefore were taken illegally. The attorneys also argued that Franklin had a reasonable expectation that his plates would be thrown into a pile with others, and so his DNA would never be able available for testing.

"I felt it would be mixed with the rest of the trash," Franklin said on the stand, drawing sighs of frustration from victims' families in the courtroom.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy rejected the defense's argument, calling it "specious and ridiculous." She said she couldn't believe a reasonable person, not knowing he was under surveillance, would ever think about what happens to his leftovers and used plateware.

MAP: Serial killers in South L.A.

"If he were really concerned about such things, he would not eat or he would take his trash with him," Kennedy said.

Frustrated by their inability to find the Grim Sleeper, whose DNA was not in a law enforcement database, Los Angeles police asked the state to look for a DNA profile similar enough to be a possible relative of the killer.

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Grim Sleeper: Judge allows DNA evidence gathered at restaurant