The Region : Probation for Father-Killer
A young Temple City man, convicted in December of voluntary manslaughter in the strangulation of his father, was sentenced Monday in Pomona Superior Court to five years’ probation and a suspended, three-year prison term.
Augustine Dass, 22, received probation despite protests by Deputy Dist. Atty. Mike Davis, who argued that Dass should spend time in state prison “to demonstrate to others that there is a price to be paid for unlawful conduct.”
Dass, a former student at Cal State Los Angeles, killed his father, Ramesh Dass, 57, on Jan. 14, 1992, during a quarrel inside the family van at Pioneer Park in El Monte. Ramesh Dass, angered that his son planned to quit school, had hit Augustine with a car-locking bar.
Defense attorney Charles (Ted) Mathews persuaded jurors that Augustine grabbed the bar away from his father and was defending himself when he accidentally killed Ramesh Dass.
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