Killer Gets Same 27-Year Sentence After 2nd Trial

A man who received a new trial after his murder conviction was overturned because he received what the court thought was inadequate representation was sentenced Friday to 27 years to life in prison, the same sentence he received after the first trial.

Patrick Robert Aronson, 42, was convicted in 1987 of first-degree murder in the 1986 shooting of Robert Chris Piper, who was shot at Woodman Avenue and Ventura Boulevard after a dispute in a nearby bar.

Aronson’s conviction was reversed after he appealed. Aronson’s lawyer had been Steven L. Dobbs. The 2nd District Court of Appeal concluded that Dobbs’ “failure to investigate and prepare for trial resulted in . . . a virtual abandonment of the case.”

The court said Dobbs used no strategy but “to see which way the wind blew. . . . Dobbs conducted no pretrial investigation except interviewing Aronson for about two hours a day or two before trial,” the court said.

Asked to comment, Dobbs, a Studio City lawyer, said: “What the 2nd District Court of Appeal said doesn’t bother me at all. It’s not true.”

After a new trial, a jury convicted Aronson on Sept. 25 of murder. On Friday, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Raymond T. Mireles sentenced Aronson to the maximum term: 27 years to life in prison.

Neither the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Phillip H. Rabichow, nor Aronson’s new defense attorney, Ronald Le Miex, said anything at the sentencing.

The appellate court particularly cited Dobbs for failing to try to find Aronson’s girlfriend, who could possibly have provided evidence that Aronson was intoxicated at the time of the shooting.

Dobbs said he began work on the case during jury selection on behalf of an associate, West Hollywood attorney Harry Weiss. Dobbs said he was suddenly called upon to represent Aronson after Weiss dropped out.

Weiss could not be reached for comment.

Added Dobbs: “‘No matter how adequately I prepared, he would have been found guilty. . . . Mr. Aronson got convicted because he was guilty.”