John Sweeney, the former boyfriend of actress Dominique Dunne, has been sentenced to a maximum of 6 years in prison for strangling her.
However, the judge expressed dissatisfaction with the jury’s manslaughter verdict, stating that the case was clearly a murder.
Superior Court Judge Burton Katz, after reviewing the evidence presented during the seven-week trial, stated that he would have found Sweeney guilty of second-degree murder, which would have resulted in a sentence of 15 years to life.
Katz firmly asserted his belief that this was a premeditated act of murder.
He stated that Sweeney did not kill Dunne in a fit of passion but rather because he couldn’t handle rejection and acted out of sheer ego.
The judge described the slaying of the 22-year-old actress as a straightforward case of murder with malicious intent.
He emphasized that Sweeney must have been aware that as Dunne fought for oxygen, her life was being replaced by death itself.
Katz argued that this clearly demonstrated malice.
Sweeney, 27, strangled Dunne, best known for her role in the movie “Poltergeist,” outside their former shared apartment in West Hollywood.
This occurred after Dunne refused to reconcile their relationship.
Dunne, the niece of writers John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion, tragically passed away five days after the attack on October 30, 1982.
Sweeney, who used to work as a chef at the prestigious Ma Maison restaurant, never denied his responsibility for Dunne’s death.
The manslaughter verdict delivered on September 21 was heavily criticized by Dunne’s parents, who considered it an injustice.
With credit for time served and good behavior in prison, Sweeney could potentially be released in three years.
In addition to his prison sentence, Sweeney was also given an extra six months in county jail for assaulting Dunne a month prior to her murder.
Throughout the sentencing hearing, Sweeney, holding a Bible, kept his face covered with his hands.
His mother and two sisters tearfully testified on his behalf, highlighting their abusive family background, with an alcoholic father who regularly assaulted their mother.
However, Judge Katz remained unmoved by these testimonies.
He criticized the fact that Sweeney’s previous assaults on women, which resulted in another girlfriend being hospitalized twice, were not reported to the authorities.
This failure potentially could have prevented Dunne’s tragic murder.
Outside the courthouse, more than a dozen members of Victims for Victims, a group founded by actress Theresa Saldana, protested against the verdict.
Saldana herself had survived a knife attack the previous year.
