Broderick Gets Maximum Term for 2 Killings

La Jolla socialite Elisabeth Anne (Betty) Broderick was sentenced Friday to the maximum term possible--32 years to life in prison--closing a murder case that sparked national interest as a symbol of the rage that fuels many divorcing couples.

Saying that the time had come to set aside the rancor that marked Broderick’s divorce and murder trials and “start the healing,” San Diego Superior Court Judge Thomas J. Whelan said Broderick deserved to be sentenced for the Nov. 5, 1989, killings of her ex-husband, attorney Daniel T. Broderick, and his new wife, Linda Kolkena Broderick.

When Betty Broderick sneaked into her ex-husband’s home before dawn that Sunday morning and fired a gun in a dark bedroom, two people died, not just one, Whelan said in imposing consecutive terms.

Parole guidelines ensure that Broderick, 44, convicted of two counts of second-degree murder in the second of two lengthy trials, will be behind bars for at least the next 18 years. Her first trial ended in a hung jury. She contended at both trials that she was a victim of a husband she said had been emotionally abusive and manipulative.

Broderick impassively read letters and legal papers as Whelan passed sentence. She did not speak, and ignored Daniel and Linda Broderick’s friends and relatives, who, one after the other, tearfully begged Whelan to show no mercy.

The only time she looked up during the two-hour hearing was when the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Kerry Wells, called her a “very disturbed woman.” Broderick put the stack of papers aside, looked to her left at Wells and smiled. Then she went back to the stack.

Wells, who had asked Whelan for the maximum term, was pleased when she heard him announce the sentence. “Yeah,” she said softly.

After the hearing, Wells said: “I say it the way I feel it and I’m pleased the judge saw it the way I see it.”

Defense lawyer Jack Earley said after the hearing that he planned to appeal the verdicts and the sentence. He had asked Whelan to give Broderick some hope that she would not die in prison but said the maximum term was not a surprise.

“I expected it and (Betty) expected it,” he said.

For more than two years, the case, with its theme of infidelity among the wealthy, had been the focus of extraordinary public attention, as if the bitter Broderick divorce were a template against which people could measure their marriages.

Aside from countless stories in the San Diego and national press, the case has been featured in several magazines. A book and a made-for-TV movie are in the works.

Daniel and Betty Broderick separated in 1985 after 16 years of marriage. During their divorce, which was not final until 1989, Betty Broderick accused her husband of using his legal influence to cheat her out of her share of his seven-figure annual income. The couple had four children, two daughters who are grown and living on their own and two sons who live with one of Daniel’s relatives.

Daniel Broderick, 44, was a prominent medical malpractice attorney and former president of the San Diego County Bar Assn. Linda Kolkena Broderick, 28, was his office assistant.

Betty Broderick admitted firing the fatal shots, but testified that her only intention was to confront the couple that morning about ongoing problems in the divorce and custody dispute, and then kill herself.

She said at the second trial that she fired five shots from a .38-caliber revolver only because Linda Broderick yelled, “Call the police!” and Daniel Broderick lunged for the phone.

The first jury, which heard the case in 1990, could not break a deadlock--10 jurors favored a murder conviction and two held out for manslaughter. The second jury compromised on a second-degree murder verdict, rejecting the prosecution’s charge that Broderick had planned the killings, which would have been first-degree murder.

Whelan sentenced Broderick to two terms of 15 years to life. State law called for him to add an additional two years for each term because she used a gun.

He called the case a “tragedy from start to finish.” But, he said, Betty Broderick showed a “high degree of callousness” by shooting both Daniel and Linda Broderick, then pulling a phone out of Daniel Broderick’s reach as he lay gurgling in his blood.

From beginning to end, Whelan said, the case had produced strong emotions. But, he said: “Now is the time to set aside this emotion and start the healing process.”

State law demands that Broderick serve two-thirds of the sentence before she is eligible for parole. With credit for the time she has spent behind bars--she surrendered to police hours after the killings--she will be eligible for release in about 18 years.

A parole board will determine whether she remains in prison beyond those 18 years.

If the sentences had run concurrently--that is, a term of 17 years to life--Broderick would still have had to serve two-thirds, about 10 years, before she is eligible for parole.

Earley asked Whelan to send Broderick to the California Institute for Women at Frontera, in Riverside County, the state’s maximum-security prison, saying it was closer to San Diego than prison up north. Whelan said he will recommend that she go there, but the decision is up to prison authorities.

Until court officials pull together the necessary papers, Broderick will remain at the Las Colinas Jail in Santee. She has been held there since she gave herself up.

As the crowd cleared out after the hearing, her eldest daughter, Kim Broderick, 21, spent a few minutes with her mother behind closed doors. Emerging, the daughter said: “I’m just glad it’s over.”

Gerard Bisceglia, Betty Broderick’s brother, said: “I feel bad for everybody. There are no sides. There are just victims.”