Tim Willert
PASADENA -- A pediatrician who strangled his pregnant lover before
pushing her car off a cliff was sentenced Thursday to 20 years to life
for his crime, despite a plea from his attorney for probation.
Kevin Paul Anderson, 42, looked straight ahead as Judge Teri Schwartz
sentenced him for the November 1999 murder of Dr. Deepti Gupta, a
34-year-old Glendale resident and fellow pediatrician who was carrying
Anderson's child.
Schwartz added five years to the sentence because of a
special-circumstance charge that the victim was pregnant.
"I can't even begin to describe in words how I feel about what
happened," Anderson told the court before sentencing. "It goes beyond
sorry."
Those words rang hollow for Gupta's husband, Vijay, who railed
against Anderson before challenging those who wrote letters on his behalf
to stand up in the courtroom.
"This man has not shown any remorse," he said. "Have you ever heard
him say he was sorry?
"He's not a man, he's worse than an animal. He's worse than a disease
and should be put away."
A Pasadena jury convicted Anderson of second-degree murder in
December, prompting his attorney, Michael Abzug, to seek probation
Thursday.
"He knows what he's done. He doesn't need a prison term to remind
him," Abzug said. "This is not a man who is oriented toward criminal
conduct."
Schwartz disagreed, and denied the request.
"This is a classic murder case," Schwartz said. "There is nothing that
seems to indicate that probation should be granted in this case."
Anderson's wife, Heidi, expressed her support for him, and also asked
Schwartz for probation.
"I feel like a victim in this, too," she said. "I totally believe in
him ... I don't believe he planned this."
Outside the courtroom, an emotional Vijay Gupta said he was satisfied
with the sentence but not the verdict.
"This was a clear-cut case of first-degree, premeditated murder," he
said.
In Anderson's criminal trial, prosecutors sought the death penalty and
argued the La Verne man planned Gupta's death by driving to the Angeles
National Forest, strangling her with his hands and a Snoopy tie and
dousing her car and body with gasoline before pushing them off a 450-foot
cliff.
Anderson feared financial and professional ruin, as well as a divorce
from his wife, Heidi, if Gupta told others of their affair and her
pregnancy, prosecutors said.
Anderson told jurors the attack was committed "in the heat of passion"
when he believed Gupta threatened his daughter.
