Police say DNA evidence has linked an inmate currently serving a life sentence for a Southern California
murder to two cold-case killings here in the Bay Area.
Fifty-six-year-old Eugene Protsman has been charged in the stabbing deaths of two Alameda residents whose bodies were found 12 days apart in 1996.
Investigators believe that Protsman fatally stabbed Manuel Garcia because he thought the man was a police informant, then stabbed Diane Ely because he wanted to steal her car. The victims did not appear to know each other and likely met Protsman because they frequently allowed transients into their homes.
Protsman previously was convicted in the 1997 beating death of a woman at a San Diego County trailer park.
If convicted in the Alameda slayings, he could face the death penalty.
