Former Boyfriend to Be Tried in Murder
The manager of a Santa Catalina Island lumberyard was ordered Friday to stand trial for the murder of his former girlfriend in the island’s first murder case in more than 40 years.
Bruce Edward Kingman, 41, will be arraigned in Long Beach Superior Court on July 14 for the beating death of Gail Lynn Pissula, 34, in the early morning hours of April 20.
Catalina Justice Court Judge Peter Mirich ordered the murder trial after two sheriff’s investigators described the allegedly conflicting accounts of the incident given by Kingman, Deputy Dist. Atty. Glenn Sommers said.
Kingman admitted that he and Pissula argued the night she died, sheriff’s deputies said. But after first telling investigators that he never let Pissula inside the trailer they shared, Kingman later said he might have let her in briefly and then pushed her, Sommers said.
Kingman called about 4 a.m. for paramedics, who found Pissula’s body on the ground outside the trailer, authorities said.
The Avalon resident is free on $95,000 bail.
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