Framstead Gets 29 Years in Slaying of Ex-Girlfriend : Courts: Judge hands down near-maximum sentence for man who disfigured himself with fire after gunning down the mother of his child.

Brian Framstead, who shot to death his former girlfriend--the mother of his child--and then set himself afire, was sentenced to 29 years to life in prison Friday for first-degree murder.

The sentence came almost two years to the day that the 30-year-old Inglewood cabinetmaker stalked Tammy Davis, forced her into his car and, after she fled, shot her at close range with a sawed-off shotgun in Huntington Beach.

“I believe to kill someone the way you killed her, by placing a shotgun right up to her head while she was cowering in fear and firing it into her head, discloses to me a high degree of cruelty and callousness,” said Superior Court Judge Everett W. Dickey before he sentenced Framstead to nearly the maximum term.

“After she jumped out of the car and ran off, you still had plenty of opportunity to reconsider what you were doing, to run away, to drive away . . . ,” the judge said. “You didn’t have to follow her and execute her in the manner that you did.”

A jury found Framstead guilty on Nov. 20 of first-degree murder as well as the additional offense of using a firearm in the crime. The term imposed by Dickey was one year short of the maximum Framstead could have received: 25 years to life for first-degree murder, and five more for the use of a firearm in the killing of the 19-year-old Stanton resident.

Framstead’s lawyer, Christian R. Jensen, asked for leniency, telling Dickey: “I don’t think the court can ignore the physical scars that Mr. Framstead imposed upon himself and that he will bear for the rest of his life.”

Framstead testified at the trial that because of his despair over their failed relationship, he intended to kill himself in front of Davis and that the fatal shot was fired accidentally. After the killing, he poured gasoline over himself while sitting in his car and set himself ablaze. As a result, his face, head, neck and hands are seriously burned, and he has been undergoing reconstructive surgery.

Dickey told Framstead that he considered the self-immolation a mitigating factor in sentencing. In addition, he said Framstead’s emotional attachment to Davis may have “contributed in a mitigating way to this event, although it’s certainly not justified, what you did. . . . It also is clear to me that you planned this crime.”

In arguing for a maximum 30-year term, Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher J. Evans referred to the “execution style of the slaying.”

Framstead will be eligible for parole in about 10 years.

Tammy Davis’ mother, Debbie Armantrout, sat weeping among family members as Dickey pronounced the sentence.

After Framstead was shackled and left the courtroom, Armantrout said she was angry that Framstead was not also charged with the special circumstance of lying in wait, which could have led to a sentence of life without parole.

“I have fear that will never go away, inside me,” she said, “that he will come back, to harm his daughter,” who lives with Armantrout.

“He is a sick man,” she said. “That son of a bitch shouldn’t be out, period. I’m never going to quit looking over my shoulder.”

Jackie Framstead, the killer’s mother, was in the courtroom but declined all comment.

The relationship between Framstead and Davis was a turbulent one, according to testimony at the trial.

Framstead began courting Davis while she was still in high school with love letters and flowers after they met at a Garden Grove bowling alley. The couple had a daughter, Briana,and moved into a mobile home together. When the relationship soured, Davis and the baby moved out.

In April, 1989, Framstead testified during the trial, he grabbed her and displayed a gun to force her to discuss their relationship. Later, Framstead said, he threatened to commit suicide, placing a gun in his mouth, but he could not disengage the safety.

He later pleaded guilty to the offense and was scheduled to begin a six-month jail term on Jan. 7, 1990, just two days after the killing.

On Jan. 5, he picked up Davis after her shift had ended at a restaurant in Huntington Beach and drove her several blocks away to a residential neighborhood, where she jumped from the car. He pursued her up the walk of a house, where she banged on the front door and he shot her.

VIOLENCE IN PAIRS Life term for man who shot pregnant wife. B7. Couple’s fights preceded deadly encounter. B8