Tape Shows Stabbing Was 1st-Degree Murder, Jury Told

By his own account, David Dunlap committed first-degree murder when he took part in the thrill-kill stabbing of a transient 6 1/2 years ago, a Ventura County prosecutor said Tuesday.

In final arguments at Dunlap’s murder trial, Deputy Dist. Atty. James D. Ellison cited the defendant’s description of how it felt to plunge a knife into Derek VanDusen’s back as the drunken victim lay sleeping in an abandoned house.

“I’m thinking to myself, man, I got the power of life and death, man,” Dunlap said in videotaped comments after his arrest by Simi Valley police.

The taped statement proves that the killing was deliberate and premeditated, Ellison said. “He knows what he’s doing is wrong, yet he goes forward.”

Dunlap’s attorney, Willard P. Wiksell, agreed that his client is a murderer, but said the crime was not premeditated. He described Dunlap, a Simi Valley resident who was 18 at the time of the slaying, as a “nonviolent, immature person under the influence of drugs.”

“What he did was second-degree murder,” Wiksell said. “He simply acted without thinking.”

The dispute over first or second degree is one of only a few disagreements at Dunlap’s trial, which began last week. The prosecution and defense agree on these points:

On Jan. 24, 1986, Dunlap and a friend, John Robert Kilroy, went to an abandoned house on Patricia Avenue in Simi Valley. They planned to drink and smoke marijuana there but found VanDusen passed out in a bedroom. They walked to a park and smoked some pot. On the way back, they picked up another friend, Todd Jones.

VanDusen, 33, was still sleeping face-down on the floor of the darkened bedroom. Kilroy stabbed him several times, then handed the knife to Dunlap, who also inflicted numerous stab wounds. Then it was Jones’ turn. The body, punctured by 27 knife wounds, was found the next day.

The three killers, all in their teens at the time, escaped arrest until early this year. Then an informant with a tape recorder got Dunlap to make incriminating statements, investigators said.

Kilroy was convicted Aug. 12 of first-degree murder and is awaiting sentencing. He is already serving a 19-year prison term for attempted murder in another case.

Jones was given immunity in exchange for his testimony against the other suspects. But Ellison said Dunlap’s statement alone is enough to convict him of first-degree murder.

In his taped statement, Dunlap said that Kilroy suggested killing the transient while the pair were at the park and that Dunlap was leery of the idea. When they went back to the house, Dunlap said, “I was hoping nobody would be there so we could just party, you know, and have a good time.”

Later, Dunlap said on the tape, “I was, you know, scared, man. Inside, I was scared. But I didn’t want these guys to see I was scared.”

When Jones tried to leave without taking part in the stabbing, Dunlap said, he grabbed Jones. “I was telling Todd he ain’t going nowhere, man. We’re all part of this, you know? We’re all in this together.”

Prosecutor Ellison said the comments show that Dunlap deliberated the crime and understood the consequences--key elements of first-degree murder. The comments also undermine Wiksell’s contention that Dunlap was too intoxicated to understand his actions, Ellison said.

But Wiksell urged the jurors to consider all the circumstances, not just a few taped comments. He said Dunlap did not take Kilroy’s suggestion of murder seriously and did not realize what Kilroy planned until the stabbing was under way.

“All he wanted to do was sit in an abandoned house and get high,” Wiksell said. Instead, the attorney said, “he was handed the knife while under the influence of drugs. He followed the crowd.”

Wiksell urged the jury to find Dunlap guilty of second-degree murder and to acquit him on a separate charge of conspiracy to commit murder. Second-degree murder is punishable by a term of 15 years to life, while a first-degree conviction carries a term of 25 years to life. Conspiracy carries the same punishment as the crime itself, so Dunlap could get additional time if he is convicted on that charge.

Seated in the audience, the victim’s mother said she hopes that Dunlap is convicted of all charges for killing her firstborn son. “The whole thing was so senseless,” said Dagmar VanDusen, who lives in Thousand Oaks. “It’s been rough on me.”

The jury in Judge James M. McNally’s courtroom is expected to begin deliberations today.