SANTA ANA -- Convicted killer Rodney Alcala apologized to a woman he raped when she was 8 years old in 1968 as she testified Tuesday in his trial's penalty phase.

After Orange County Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy questioned Tali Shapiro, Alcala, who has been acting as his own attorney, asked if she recalled him apologizing to her when she testified at an earlier trial.

She said she did not.

"I sincerely regret and apologize for my despicable actions that day,'' Alcala said.

Shapiro said it was the first time Alcala had apologized to her. When asked if the apology moved her in any way, Shapiro said, "Hell no.''

Los Angeles County prosecutor Gina Satriano, who is helping Murphy with the case, began the penalty phase of Alcala's multiple murder trial by asking the same jurors who convicted him last week to recommend the death sentence.

Only 13 people have been executed in California since the state re- instituted the death penalty in 1977, and a moratorium is now in place over whether giving a condemned person a lethal injection is violation of the Constitution's guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment.

Alcala, 66, twice had been convicted and sentenced to die for killing 12- year-old Robin Samsoe in Huntington Beach on June 20, 1979, but the convictions were overturned on appeal.

Last week was the first time Alcala was convicted of killing four other women:

-- Jill Barcomb, an 18-year-old runaway, who was killed in a remote area of the Hollywood Hills on Nov. 10, 1977;

-- Georgia Wixted, a 27-year-old registered nurse killed on Dec. 16, 1978;

-- Charlotte Lamb, 32, slain on June 24, 1978; and

-- Jill Parenteau, 21, who was killed June 14, 1979.

The seven-man, five-woman jury can recommend Alcala's execution or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Former Los Angeles police Officer Chris Camacho testified about interrupting Alcala's rape of Shapiro on Sept. 25, 1968. A "good Samaritan'' who grew suspicious when he saw Shapiro get into Alcala's car followed them and found a payphone to call police.

Camacho testified that he had been with the department for about 18 months, having just returned to work in August of 1968 after being shot.

Camacho knocked on the door and he heard the "excited'' voice of a man respond. Camacho threatened to break down the door if the man did not open it.

Alcala, who appeared to be nude, brushed aside some venetian blinds and said he had been in the shower and needed to put some clothes on, Camacho testified. When he didn't open up moments later, Camacho kicked in the door and saw Shapiro on the floor, a metal bar on her neck, unconscious and spread- eagled with"massive amounts'' of blood around her, he testified.

Alcala had escaped through a back door, he said. Alcala fled the state but was arrested in 1971 and convicted of lewd and lascivious acts in 1972, Satriano said.

"At that time I thought (Shapiro) was dead, because she was not breathing,'' Camacho said.

Camacho was a police officer for about seven years, and he said the crime scene still haunts him.

"I served in Vietnam in the 101st Airborne -- those memories and this memory will stay with me forever,'' Camacho said.

Camacho hugged Shapiro afterward, telling her, "Remember what I said. The best revenge is living well.''

Shapiro testified that her family was displaced by a fire and were living in a Sunset Boulevard hotel in Hollywood in 1968.

Alcala got her into his car by promising to show her a pretty picture. She was in the habit of walking to school, because she was afraid of taking public buses and her school bus would not stop at the hotel.

Shapiro testified that she told Alcala she was not allowed to talk to strangers. He, however, told her it was OK, because he knew her family. After getting in the car, she grew uneasy almost immediately.

"I wanted to jump out of the car, but I was 7 or 8 so I stayed,'' Shapiro said.

She said she didn't remember much after that, because Alcala knocked her out with the metal bar Camacho found across her neck. Shapiro recalled being taken to a hospital.

"My brother told me years later they didn't know whether I'd be an idiot or not,'' she said outside court. She said she tried to not look at Alcala during her testimony.

The Shapiro family was so spooked by the attack they moved to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. She lived outside the country for about 18 years, but lives in Newport Beach now.

"I have trust and commitment issues'' to this day, she said.

Shapiro said Alcala's apology meant little because it appeared to be self- serving.

"He apologized because he got caught,'' Shapiro said after testifying.

Shapiro said she hoped Alcala would be sentenced to die.

"The fact that this guy is still alive is amazing,'' she said.

Shapiro said she remains grateful to Camacho and her "good Samaritan.''

"He found a payphone and called police or I'd not be alive today,'' she said.

Anne Michelena, Wixted's sister, testified that her sister's death so rattled Wixted's mother that she had to be hospitalized for mental health problems.

A day after Wixted was buried, "We had to put our mother in a mental facility,'' Michelena testified. Her mother was under a psychiatrist's care for the rest of her life and had to go into mental hospitals periodically. Her mother died about 17 years after her daughter, Michelena said.

"She put it best (in a letter to a friend), I'm vegetating, I'm not living,'' Michelena said.

Alcala declined to give an opening statement. Last week, he said he does not have any witnesses, but will read testimony from previous trials into the record.