This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
A 27-year-old homeless man who fatally stabbed a woman outside the Hollywood and Highland Center was sentenced today to 12 years in prison.Dustin James Kinnear pleaded no contest on Sept. 29 to involuntary manslaughter in the killing of 23-year-old Christine Calderon, according to the L.A. Times.
The incident occurred on the evening of June 18, 2013 when Calderon and her friend, Robert Harden, were walking down bustling Hollywood Boulevard. A group of transients—Kinnear, Jason Joel Wolstone, and Brian Joseph Widdows—were holding a sign with obscenities written on it, asking for money. When Calderon and Harden saw the sign, they found it amusing and snapped some photos of it, according to court testimony. Calderon's friend told LAist last June that one of the men shouted at them: "If you're going to take our fucking pictures, you need to give us money." He said that they told him to "fuck off" and walked away. That's when Calderon was attacked.
Wolstone put Calderon in a headlock, according to the Times. During the brawl, Kinnear got on top of Calderon and stabbed her. She died at the hospital.
Wolstone was sentenced to two years in prison in April after he pleaded no contest to assault, and Widdows was also sentenced to two years jail in June for two counts of being an accessory after the fact of the attack. Prior to Kinnear's no contest plea last month, the jury was deadlocked in his case and failed to reach a verdict, according to CBS Los Angeles.
Kinnear's mother told the Times when he was arrested that her son had been in a number of mental health facilities. He was arrested 46 times over the last eight years, including seven arrests for assault with a deadly weapon.
His attorney, Lowynn Young said, "This case was very messy—it wasn't black and white."
