The Region - News from June 3, 1986

A youth was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison for the murder of actor David Huffman, who was stabbed to death in San Diego on Feb. 27, 1985, in a Balboa Park canyon not far from the Old Globe Theater, where he had been starring in a stage production of “Of Mice and Men.” Genare Samano Villanueva, 17, an illegal alien who had been living with relatives in San Diego, admitted stabbing Huffman with a screwdriver, but said he did not mean to kill the actor. Superior Court Judge Norbert Ehrenfreund rejected a defense request that Villanueva be sentenced to the California Youth Authority, which could have kept him in custody only until he was 25.