Killer of two given life without parole

Bill Gang

Wednesday, March 31, 1999 | 10:21 a.m.

A District Court jury has decided that Lonnie Dennis shouldn't be sentenced to death for the slayings of his estranged wife and her boyfriend, but that he should never walk the streets again either.

After two hours of deliberations Tuesday night, the jury at Dennis' penalty hearing voted to sentence the 50-year-old defendant to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In his testimony, Dennis again claimed the July 3, 1997, shooting death of Elfie Dennis occurred accidentally as he struggled with her boyfriend over a gun Dennis had brought as he sought to woo his wife back.

Dennis said the boyfriend, John Ludvigson, attacked him and the confrontation turned deadly, but there was never an intent to kill. Ludvigson's throat was slashed from ear to ear.

Dennis testified at his trial that he remembers only the shootings and nothing of the bloody aftermath.

"I'm sorry," the defendant told the jury. "You'll never know how sorry I am. I live with it every day and every night.

"It wasn't his fault," Dennis said of Ludvigson. "He made the mistake of caring for the person I loved so much."

Dennis' attorneys Ulrich Smith and Joseph Sciscento had argued at the trial earlier this month that the slayings were a crazed heat-of-passion event and didn't constitute murder.

But the jury had agreed with Deputy District Attorney David Roger that the slayings were a case of "fatal attraction" and the crime was first-degree murder, not voluntary manslaughter. Because the charge can carry a death sentence, it fell to the jury to decide the defendant's punishment.

Dennis promised the jury that if he was given a life prison sentence, he would walk away from any future confrontation.

Psychiatrist Dr. Jakob Camp testified that many of Dennis' problems stemmed from growing up without a father and from sexual abuse he suffered as a child.

Camp concluded that Dennis is someone who can be rehabilitated.

The jury could also have sentenced Dennis to life in prison with the possibility of parole. If they had chosen that option, Dennis would have been eligible for parole at the age of 90.

Dennis showed no emotion when Tuesday's verdict was announced and did not thank the jury for sparing his life.

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