Oct 16, 2008 5:28 pm US/Pacific
Homeless Man Convicted Of Fatally Choking Lawyer
INDIO
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Defense attorney David Prendergast has said his client lived a "desperate life" due to drug addiction and agreed to allow the victim to perform oral sex on him for money, but insisted that Anunciation left Shallenberger's trailer before he was killed.
WJZ
A homeless man was convicted Thursday of second-degree murder in the strangulation killing of an 85-year-old retired Orange County attorney at his Palm Desert vacation trailer during a sexual encounter.
It was the second trial for Michael Anunciation, 48, who faces 15 years to life in prison.
In July, another jury deadlocked on whether to convict Anunciation of second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter in the Sept. 30, 2006, death of Garvin F. Shallenberger, onetime president of both the State Bar of California and the Orange County Bar Association.
Anunciation, who has been behind bars for just over two years while being held on $2 million bail, is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 27 at the Larson Justice Center. He will be sentenced by Superior Court Judge James S. Hawkins, who declined defense attorney David Prendergast's request to immediately sentence his client.
Jurors deliberated less than a day before returning their verdict.
Outside the courtroom, the prosecutor and the public defender said a gag order prevented them from commenting on the case.
During closing arguments on Wednesday, Prendergast told the panel that Anunciation was the paid sex partner of the retired attorney. He said his client grabbed Shallenberger when the lawyer bit him during oral sex, but did not strangle him.
Prendergast said the two had an ongoing sex-for-money relationship.
Deputy District Attorney Lisa DiMaria told jurors that Anunciation lied to an investigator about being bitten, choking the attorney and being paid for oral sex until he was confronted with physical evidence -- including DNA and other facts about the murder.
She said Anunciation stole Shallenberger's wallet and other property and fled, leaving the attorney naked and lifeless in the living room of his home
with a pornographic movie playing.
The victim lived primarily in Orange County but kept a vacation trailer at the Portola County Club in the 74000 block of Mercury Circle West, where his body was discovered.
DiMaria told jurors in the first trial that Anunciation had been drinking, using methamphetamine and receiving oral sex from Shallenberger when -- at the "height of orgasm" -- he choked the attorney.
The prosecutor said Anunciation admitted to a sheriff's investigator after his arrest that he strangled Shallenberger.
Prendergast has said his client lived a "desperate life" due to drug addiction and agreed to allow the victim to perform oral sex on him for money, but insisted that Anunciation left Shallenberger's trailer before he was killed.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
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