SIMI VALLEY : Killer of Drunken Transient Gets 16 Years to Life
A Simi Valley man was sentenced to prison Monday for 16 years to life in the 1986 “thrill killing” of a drunken transient.
David A. Dunlap, 24, received the sentence from Superior Court Judge James McNally, who expressed surprise that a jury convicted Dunlap of second-degree murder instead of first-degree murder.
“The victim was totally helpless and unable in any way to defend himself,” McNally said, before sentencing Dunlap in the Jan. 24, 1986, slaying of 33-year-old Derek VanDusen.
Dunlap and two friends found VanDusen passed out in an abandoned house, and together they stabbed the man 36 times, according to trial testimony.
In a videotaped confession, Dunlap admitted stabbing VanDusen at the suggestion of John Robert Kilroy, now 23, who was convicted in August of conspiracy and first-degree murder in the killing.
The third man, Todd Jones, who allegedly stabbed VanDusen after he was dead, was given immunity in exchange for his testimony against the other two.
A jury deliberated for one day before finding Dunlap guilty of second-degree murder, apparently forgoing a first-degree conviction because of testimony that Dunlap was using marijuana and LSD heavily at the time, said his attorney, Willard B. Wiksell.
“I think Mr. Dunlap’s entire history is one of a walking medicine chest,” Wiksell said after sentencing.
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