Jury to Begin Deliberating Today in Woman’s Slaying

Jury deliberations were to begin today in the trial of a Tustin man accused of murdering his girlfriend at their apartment two years ago.

During closing arguments Monday in Orange County Superior Court, prosecutors argued that Kirkland O’Hara, 38, should be convicted of first-degree murder for the July 1995 shooting of 34-year-old Dawn Hill in an upstairs bathroom. Prosecutors portrayed O’Hara as a spurned lover with a long history of domestic violence who was unable to cope with rejection.

Prosecutors contended that O’Hara became enraged when he was supposed to move out of Hill’s apartment and that he shot Hill once in the chest, then turned the revolver on himself--all while Hill’s 8-year-old son watched television downstairs. O’Hara shot himself in the mouth, said the prosecution, but survived.

There are two O’Haras, prosecutor Debora Lloyd told jurors. One is “a Mr. Lovey-Touchy-Feely” and the other is “a person who is hateful and is capable of great violence and tortures women.”

O’Hara’s defense attorney, however, contended that the prosecution had based its case on weak physical evidence, and offered another version of events the night of the shooting. Frank Ospino said Hill shot his client in the mouth first, and then O’Hara wrestled the gun away from her and fatally shot her.

Ospino urged jurors to disregard the testimony of four former girlfriends of O’Hara who claimed the defendant had physically abused them. Ospino said there are no medical or police records to corroborate their stories.

“That evidence is here to make you hate this man,” said Ospino. “It’s to demonize him in front of you. . . .”