Doctor Details Killing of Colleague

Pasadena pediatrician Kevin Anderson testified in graphic detail Friday how he killed a colleague with whom he had been having an affair, but he denied that he had planned the killing.

Anderson, 41, said “everything just snapped” and he strangled Dr. Deepti Gupta, 33, on the Angeles Crest Highway, then put her body in her car and doused her with gasoline before pushing the vehicle over a 450-foot cliff.

Anderson said that he and Gupta, who was pregnant with his child, had driven into the Angeles National Forest on Nov. 11, 1999, to stargaze. He said an argument broke out over their professional and personal relationship.

The defendant said that at the height of the argument, Gupta told him, “I know where your daughter goes to school.”

“I started yelling at her to shut up,” Anderson told the jury during his second day of testimony at his murder trial in Pasadena Superior Court. “I reached down and grabbed this tie. I looped it around her neck and I started pulling, yelling, ‘Shut up! Shut up! Not my daughter!’ . . .

“All of sudden, it was just real quiet,” he said. “And I started getting scared. I let go of the tie. And she just kind of slumped forward. . . . Her eyes were open. I thought to myself, ‘Oh my God, you know, she’s dead.’ ”

Anderson, who spoke calmly, denied prosecutors’ allegations that the stargazing trip was a murderous ruse to cover up their affair and the pregnancy that threatened his marriage, career and financial success.

“Murder wasn’t on my mind; it wasn’t in the realm of possibility,” Anderson said. As he spoke, tears ran down the cheeks of his wife, Heidi.

Anderson’s remarks came in reply to questions from his attorney, Michael Abzug, who says his client killed Gupta in an impulsive act. If jurors agree with Abzug’s argument, they could find Anderson guilty of voluntary manslaughter, avoiding a possible death sentence.

Anderson testified Friday that the items Deputy Dist. Atty. Marian M.J. Thompson calls a “murder kit”--a rope, matches, a can of gasoline and gloves--were things he carried in his car every day.

The doctor said Gupta told him she was pregnant the day before her death, when they met at a motel in Pasadena and had sex.

“She ended up saying . . . ‘I’ll go to your house and tell her [Anderson’s wife] I am pregnant,’ ” Anderson testified.

Anderson said he didn’t believe Gupta was pregnant. He also conceded his testimony contradicts what he told sheriff’s homicide detectives in a taped interview played to jurors last week: That he and Gupta never had an affair.

Anderson said he arranged to meet Gupta the evening of Nov. 11. He said they drove separately to Mile Marker 33 on the Angeles Crest Highway, and they looked at stars before they started arguing.

He said that after killing Gupta, he thought, “Maybe, you know, I can make this look like a traffic accident.”

Anderson testified that he put Gupta’s body back in her Mercedes SUV, doused her with gasoline and reached for a pack of matches.

“I guess I forgot to put it in park,” he said, explaining that the Mercedes rolled over the cliff before he could strike a match.