SANTA ANA – Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against both registered sex offenders accused of raping and killing four women in a case that drew scrutiny over the GPS monitoring of sex offenders.

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday that it will seek the death penalty against Franc Cano, 29, of Anaheim, who is facing special-circumstances murder and forcible-rape charges in connection to the slayings of four Santa Ana and Anaheim women believed to have ties to prostitution.

In December, prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty for Cano’s co-defendant, Steven Dean Gordon, 47, who is facing the same charges.

The two were indicted by a grand jury in 2014 in the killings of Kianna Jackson, 20; Josephine Vargas, 34; Martha Anaya, 28; and Jarrae Estepp, 21, whose body was found on a conveyor belt at an Anaheim recycling facility.

The three other women’s bodies were never recovered.

Both men were under the supervision of federal probation and state parole officials when the women were killed.

Investigators believe the pair twice cut off their monitoring bracelets to travel out of state.

Authorities say the two men picked up the women at well-known prostitution hubs in Orange County and left their bodies in trash dumpsters.

Police say they suspect the men may have killed a fifth woman, who hasn’t been identified or found.

Using the men’s GPS units, detectives could track the suspects to where the killings were believed to have occurred and linked them to each woman’s cellphone, according to grand jury transcripts.

District Attorney Tony Rackauckas decided to seek the death penalty after conferring with a committee of top prosecutors with experience in capital murder cases.

Contact the writer: kpuente@ocregister.com