Death Penalty Won’t Be Asked in Killing of Actress

A prosecutor agreed Wednesday not to seek the death penalty for Robert John Bardo, the man charged with the murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer, and Bardo agreed to be tried without a jury.

Two years after the 21-year-old star of “My Sister Sam” was gunned down at her apartment door in the Fairfax District by an apparently obsessed fan, a trial date of Sept. 25 was set and Superior Court Judge Dino Fulgoni was assigned to the case. Deputy Dist. Atty. Marcia Clark said it seemed unlikely that Bardo, a first offender, would have been given the death penalty if convicted by a jury.

Schaeffer died of a single gunshot wound to the chest after answering the security door at her apartment building on July 18, 1989. Bardo was arrested a day later while running in and out of traffic in Tucson, Ariz.