Man Who Stabbed Friend to Death Gets 4-Year Term

A Van Nuys man who fatally stabbed a friend with a kitchen knife after an argument over the victim’s claims that he was a faith healer was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison.

In an agreement with prosecutors, Richard Michael Russell, 29, of Van Nuys pleaded guilty on Aug. 11 to involuntary manslaughter in the June 10 killing of Daniel J. Hallbauer, 31, also of Van Nuys. Under terms of the plea, Russell was guaranteed a sentence of no more than five years in prison.

At an emotional sentencing hearing, Hallbauer’s friends and relatives asked Superior Court Judge Judith Meisels Ashmann to give Russell the maximum sentence.

Russell has caused Hallbauer’s family “a heartache that can never be undone” and “deserves a life of remorse and suffering,” Hallbauer’s sister, Diane Rosales, told Ashmann.

Peter Arenobine, a friend of the Hallbauer family, asked for the maximum sentence for Russell “so he will not be released and make some other family grieve and suffer.”

Victim Struck Attacker

Thom Tibor, Russell’s attorney, asked for a sentence of two years, arguing that the killing occurred after Hallbauer had struck Russell twice and that both men had been drinking.

Saying that Hallbauer’s attack on Russell was a mitigating factor, Ashmann sentenced Russell to three years for involuntary manslaughter and a year more for using a knife. He is to receive 182 days credit for time already served, work credits and good behavior.

Prosecutors agreed to let Russell plead to the lesser charge at his preliminary hearing because evidence showed that Hallbauer was slapping, punching and pushing Russell before the killing, and that Russell was bloody and bruised, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrew W. Diamond. The fight followed Hallbauer’s claims that he was a faith healer and could speak in tongues, said Diamond.

Hallbauer hit Russell twice in the face, Diamond said. Russell then grabbed a kitchen knife and began poking Hallbauer before stabbing him in the shoulder, leg and chest.

Hallbauer, the father of a 7-year-old girl, was pronounced dead at Northridge Hospital Medical Center.