Murder Conviction Thrown Out by Judge

A murder conviction has been dismissed by a Municipal Court judge after an appellate court ruled that two confessions by David Michael Dingle were obtained illegally by police.

Dingle, 25, was convicted of murder, rape and sodomy stemming from the Sept. 30, 1983, death of Mavis Lundgren, 57, of North Park. He was sentenced to 42 years to life in state prison. But without the confessions, Judge Patricia Cowett ruled, there is insufficient evidence to try Dingle again on the murder and sex charges.

Lundgren, a waitress, was found on her knees in her bathroom, her head in a bathtub filled with water. An autopsy revealed that she had been beaten and drowned. Firefighters found the body when they responded to a fire set by Dingle. The woman had been dead for some time, and Dingle’s former girlfriend testified that he had admitted in a letter that he had set the fire so authorities would find the body because it had started to smell.

He also was convicted on two counts of burglary and one count of arson connected to a series of break-ins at Lundgren’s apartment. Cowett ruled that Dingle’s confession to the burglary and arson charges also were illegally obtained but said there is sufficient evidence to retry him on those charges.

Dingle is scheduled to be arraigned on the burglary and arson counts Jan. 20, and Cowett reduced his bail to $50,000 from $100,000. If convicted of the charges, Dingle could be sentenced to a maximum 10 years in state prison.

The 4th District Court of Appeal ruled that San Diego police homicide investigators continued questioning Dingle illegally after he asked to have an attorney present. The continued questioning violated Dingle’s Fifth Amendment rights, the appellate court ruled, even though he made the two confessions.