BDSM MEDIA NEWS!!!!
November 18, 2012
LA bondage club owner's killer to serve 56 years
Source: Mercurynews.com. - Mercurynews.com - USA
USA - LOS ANGELES - A man upset that he was banished from a fetish club's swinger parties was sentenced to 56 years to life in prison Thursday for murdering the club's owner, killing a dog and then torching the building.
David Edward Albert, 55, of Simi Valley, was convicted in July of first-degree murder, arson and cruelty to an animal for the July 2010 deaths of John Lavine and his gray wolf dog, Koda.
Albert declined to speak at the sentencing hearing, but Lavine's son said he felt some compassion for the man who killed his father.
"I don't want to have hate," said Dean Lavine, who added he hadn't seen any remorse from Albert. "This is a person that did something incredibly violent."
Prosecutors said Albert was angry that he had lost his job as a maintenance worker at Passive Studios and was barred from the club's invitation-only swinger parties.
Prosecutor Marc Chomel said during the trial that Albert was no longer welcomed at the club's parties "because he was creeping people out" while trying to fulfill a sexual fetish.
Superior Court Judge Rand S. Rubin said Lavine had banned Albert from taking part in "acts that were very important to him."
Lavine, 62, was shot in the back of the head, and Albert set the club, which was near Los Angeles International Airport, on fire.
Defense attorney Winston Kevin McKesson said Lavine died because of a botched suicide. Albert went to the business armed with a gun and planned to kill himself in front of Lavine after being fired a few weeks earlier from his janitorial job. But the two men struggled with one another after Lavine belittled Albert, McKesson said.
