Man Sentenced to Life in Prison for Killing 2 Women : Courts: Dean Roger McGrath is denied the possibility of parole for gunning down his ex-girlfriend and her sister in 1990 in North Hills.

A 31-year-old former sheet-metal worker Tuesday was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for barging into his former girlfriend’s home, killing her with a shotgun blast and then reloading and killing her sister.

Dean Roger McGrath, who contended during his trial that the two women had been scheming to kill him, was spared the death penalty last month by the Van Nuys Superior Court jury that convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder.

McGrath said he gunned down the two sisters at their North Hills duplex July 11, 1990, to stop attempts on his life.

He said his girlfriend, Marleen Taylor, 32, and her sister, Kathleen Fein, had poisoned his food and were responsible for several instances in which bullets narrowly missed him while he was walking outside or sitting in a car.

Prosecutors suggested instead that McGrath was a longtime abuser of Taylor and that the killings were revenge for her decision to end their relationship.

They noted that McGrath had twice been convicted of beating Taylor and had never reported to police any attempts on his life.

Testifying in his own defense, McGrath acknowledged that after shooting Taylor, he reloaded, found Fein in a bedroom telephoning police and shot her, then reloaded and shot her again.

McGrath admitted in court that he fired at the back of Taylor’s head as she fled the room, but insisted, “I never wanted to kill Marleen.”

He said he shot her because “I didn’t want her to go out the door because she was trying to kill me.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Sera Boyadjian scoffed at McGrath’s self-defense claims, asking how he could be threatened by a woman “sitting in her house in her T-shirt and panties at 1:30 in the morning, getting ready for bed.”

McGrath also acknowledged that after shooting the sisters, he ran after Anthony DeLuca, 31, who was living with Taylor and Fein and had fled the home on McGrath’s arrival.

DeLuca told the jury that McGrath chased him about one block, shot him in the back, reloaded and shot him again, injuring his back, leg and arm.

Boyadjian suggested that DeLuca was shot because he had replaced McGrath in Taylor’s life, but McGrath responded, “I don’t remember thinking nothing like that.”

He said he shot DeLuca because “Tony was getting involved in this attempt on my life.”

McGrath was convicted of attempted murder in DeLuca’s shooting.

Taylor’s two children, a 2-year-old boy fathered by McGrath and a 4-year-old boy fathered by DeLuca, were awake when the attack occurred but were not injured, authorities said.