AIDS Case Slayer Sentenced to Prison

A San Diego man who said he helped an AIDS victim commit suicide was sentenced Tuesday to state prison for second-degree murder.

A jury on July 11 convicted John Cleaves, 43, of San Diego in the death of Dennis Eaton, 40. Cleaves testified that he merely aided Eaton in committing suicide because Eaton was depressed over his illness.

Eaton’s fully clothed body was found Sept. 13 in his Hillcrest apartment. He had been hogtied and strangled with a bathrobe sash. San Diego Superior Court Judge Louis Boyle imposed the maximum sentence of 15 years to life and fined Cleaves $100.

The foreman of the jury that convicted Cleaves, the Rev. Paul Pulliam, a Presbyterian minister from La Mesa, said in an interview that the jury believed Cleaves’ story of helping Eaton commit suicide. But Pulliam said Cleaves crossed the line and became a participant in the death rather than an observer, which made it murder.