Bondage Club's 'House Slave' Convicted In Murder, Arson
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — An outcast "house slave" banned from a Los Angeles fetish club was convicted Friday of murdering the venue's owner, killing his dog and setting a fire that damaged the building.
A Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated less than a day before finding David Edward Albert, 55, of Simi Valley, guilty of first-degree murder, arson and cruelty to an animal in connection with the July 27, 2010, deaths of Passive Arts Studio owner John Lavine and his 5-year-old gray wolf, Koda.
Albert had been banned from attending "swinger parties" at the facility because the owner said he was "creeping people out."
Deputy District Attorney Marc Chomel said the "evidence of premeditation and deliberation was really strong."
Lavine, 62, was shot in the back of the head and the back and strangled, then set on fire in a blaze that destroyed the front of the building near Los Angeles International Airport.
Defense attorney Winston Kevin McKesson countered that the death resulted from a botched suicide attempt. He urged jurors to convict Albert of the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter rather than murder.
Albert's lawyer told jurors in his opening statement last month that his client had gone to the business armed with a gun and a plan to kill himself in front of Lavine. Albert had been fired a few weeks earlier from his janitorial job.
The suicide plan went awry when Lavine "belittled him," "hurt him emotionally" and the two struggled, McKesson told jurors.
The prosecutor countered that Albert had a fetish about smelling women's behinds and was banned as a result from the "swinger parties" where couples swapped partners on the weekends.
Lavine's body was so badly charred in the fire that the coroner's office had to identify him from X-rays showing surgical implants in his back.
Albert is facing a potential life prison term when he returns to the downtown Los Angeles courthouse Sept. 14 for sentencing.
