| For Immediate Release Case # 07ZF0015
July 2, 2009 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Public Affairs Counsel Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami |
MAN CONVICTED OF STABBING AND KILLING VICTIM AT APARTMENT PARTY
SANTA ANA – A man was convicted today of stabbing and killing another man after getting into an argument at a party at an apartment in Anaheim. David Louis Vinci Jr., 24, Anaheim, was found guilty by a jury of one felony count of voluntary manslaughter with a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon. Vinci faces a maximum sentence of 12 years in state prison at his sentencing on Aug. 28, 2009, in Department C-36, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana.
On June 2, 2007, Vinci went to a party with several friends. At approximately 12:30 a.m., 19-year-old Sean Pickett arrived at the party and got into a verbal argument with his girlfriend, who was hosting the party. Upon seeing Pickett and his girlfriend arguing, Vinci and a few friends joined the argument, escalating it into a physical attack on Pickett.
Pickett was able to run away from the attack and call his friends, including 23-year-old Andrew Thompson, to come join him at the party to protect him from the defendant and his friends. After returning to the party with his friends, Pickett and his girlfriend resumed their argument and the girlfriend told Pickett to leave.
As Pickett and his friends, including Thompson, left the party, Vinci yelled at the victims from the balcony of the second story apartment. He ran downstairs with a knife and stabbed Thompson one time in the heart, killing him. Vinci was arrested the following morning at his girlfriend’s home.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Howard Gundy of the Homicide Unit is prosecuting this case.
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