Dunphy Assailant Gets 14-Year Term

Frederick Cole, the only one of three defendants convicted in the 1983 shooting of television newscaster Jerry Dunphy, was sentenced Friday to 14 years and eight months in state prison by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ernest M. Hiroshige.

Cole, 24, of Los Angeles, was convicted of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery, stemming from a late-night incident in which a car full of assailants opened fire on Dunphy’s Rolls-Royce at a stop sign outside KABC-TV’s studios in Hollywood. Dunphy and Sandra Marshall, a makeup artist whom Dunphy has since married, were wounded but have since returned to work.

The two victims declined to appear at the sentencing hearing, stating that they were too disgusted with the results of a recent jury trial in which co-defendants Gregory Chatman and Joseph Mark Lee were acquitted.

“He (Dunphy) considers the trial to have been a farce,” according to a probation officer’s report prepared for Hiroshige, “and states that the guilty person who shot him, co-defendant Chatman, is now free.”

Dunphy, 63, also told the probation officer that he no longer drives a Rolls-Royce “because society, as evidenced by this situation, will not permit such a luxury.”

Cole’s lawyer, James Bledsoe Jr., had sought a seven-year prison term, contending that his client deserved leniency because he had given information to police concerning the shooting and other matters.

But Hiroshige sentenced Cole--whose nickname is “Time Bomb” and who appeared for his sentencing in a tuxedo--to the maximum allowable term because “the intent really was to kill these individuals.

“I think the defendant is lucky and I’m sure Mr. Dunphy and Miss Marshall are lucky they’re alive today--it could have been a special circumstances case,” the judge added.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Dennis Choate termed the judge’s decision “just.” Cole, he added, will be eligible for parole in about seven years.

The shooting, according to trial testimony, occurred at the end of an evening-long robbery spree in which the assailants accosted victims at bus stops and automatic bank teller machines from Gardena to Hollywood. Dunphy and Marshall, 36, said they were returning to work for the 11 p.m. newscast when someone in an adjacent car shouted, “Don’t move, you dirty sons of bitches.”

When Dunphy turned to Marshall, 36, and said, “My God, I think they’re serious,” shots rang out. Neither Dunphy, who was hit in the arm and neck, nor Marshall, who was shot in the right arm, could identify their assailants in court.

After the jury’s verdict in June, Lee, who suffers from schizophrenia, told reporters that he and Chatman had been in the car along with Cole. Lee, however, later revised his statement, saying he did not fully recall what took place the night of the shooting.

Unlike the others, Cole’s defense was hampered by a confession he made to police. Bledsoe said Friday that he would file an appeal because Hiroshige refused to suppress the confession before the jury.

Bledsoe also claimed that Cole was “double-crossed” by authorities who decided against granting him leniency in exchange for his testimony against the other defendants at the trial. Instead, the prosecution granted immunity to another man in the car, Raymond Dee Johnson, who had told authorities that he did not fire a gun at the victims. After the trial, several jurors said they questioned the truthfulness of Johnson’s testimony.