Avalon Resident Convicted of Murdering Girlfriend

A lumberyard manager from Avalon was convicted Thursday of murdering his girlfriend in Santa Catalina Island’s first murder in more than 40 years.

A Long Beach Superior Court jury deliberated for a day and a half before finding Bruce Kingman, 42, guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Gail Lynn Pisula, 34.

Kingman, who had been free on $250,000 bail, was taken into custody immediately after the verdict. He faces 15 years to life in prison, when he returns to Judge Robert Parkin’s court Oct. 26 for sentencing.

“We are very elated,” said Pisula’s father, Tony, who sat through the two-week trial with his wife, Millie. “This doesn’t bring my daughter back, but at least we feel that justice was done.”

Authorities on Santa Catalina Island said there had not been a murder on the island since the 1940s; records are not maintained before that.

Authorities said the murder was the result of a domestic dispute. Deputy Dist. Atty. Glenn Sommers told the jury that Kingman had strangled and beaten Pisula to death on the night of April 20, after she told him she was moving out of the trailer they shared near Avalon.

But Kingman testified that he only pushed Pisula to prevent her from coming into the trailer and that she must have slipped and fallen on a wooden front porch.

Friends and relatives told authorities that the relationship had been troubled almost since the two met in San Diego five years ago. Kingman and Pisula were known around Avalon as heavy drinkers who repeatedly broke up and reunited, Sommers said.

Her parents and friends said Pisula frequently had bumps and bruises that they suspected were caused by Kingman. Just a few weeks before her death, Pisula returned to Catalina Island to attempt a reconciliation with Kingman.

“I don’t know what drove her to go back,” said Tony Pisula, who lives in Las Vegas. “I guess we’ll never know.”

On the day she died, Gail Pisula had left a note in their trailer telling Kingman that she was going to move out, Sommers said. Kingman wrote a profane response on the note, which was found later by deputies, Sommers said.

Kingman called paramedics at about 4 a.m. to report that he had found Pisula’s body just outside his trailer. He told deputies that he had pushed Pisula after 10 p.m. when she tried to come inside but that he did not see her body until he awoke early in the morning, Sommers said.

An autopsy concluded that Pisula died of a brain hemorrhage after being strangled and beaten, Sommers said.

Blood spatters on the ceiling of the trailer showed that Pisula had been attacked inside, the prosecutor told the jury.

Kingman was not charged with first-degree murder, with its higher penalty of 25 years to life in prison, because there was no evidence that the killing was premeditated, Sommers said.

Kingman managed Pebbly Beach Building Supply Co., a lumberyard just outside the center of Avalon. Pisula, who had been looking for a job, previously worked in the hotel industry in Las Vegas and held other jobs in San Diego.