Man Found Guilty in Fatal Beating of Father
A Sherman Oaks man was found guilty Friday of beating his 71-year-old father to death with body-building weights.
After deliberating for more than two days, a Van Nuys Superior Court jury found Ross Harvey De Spenza, 42, guilty of second-degree murder in the April 14, 1990, slaying of his father, who was also named Ross De Spenza.
De Spenza faces a maximum sentence of 21 years to life in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 15 by Judge James M. Coleman.
De Spenza, who acted as his own attorney in the weeklong trial, claimed that he killed his father in self-defense when the older man came at him with a knife.
However, Deputy Dist. Atty. Terese Hutchison introduced evidence that De Spenza had previously threatened his father. The older De Spenza, who lived in West Hills, was killed a week after he had eliminated his son as a beneficiary in a family trust fund, according to the evidence.
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