Van Nuys Man Gets Life Sentence in Death of Disabled Woman

A 25-year-old Van Nuys man was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole for beating to death a disabled woman who belonged to a neighborhood crime watch group.

About 20 family members and friends of the victim looked on as Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Darlene E. Schempp sentenced Donald Max Kuehn for killing a former beauty pageant contestant who had been rebuilding her life after a crippling car accident.

Emily Krevi, 34, who was beaten to death in her Van Nuys apartment Oct. 31, 1989, had befriended Kuehn, a heavy drug and alcohol user who lived in the apartment building next door, authorities said. Friends described Krevi as a deeply religious woman who was attempting to convert Kuehn to Christianity.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeffrey S. Gootman said Kuehn beat Krevi to death while attempting to rape her and then took jewelry from her apartment. But he left behind his wallet, which led police to him.

Kuehn pleaded no contest last month to a charge of first-degree murder as jury selection began for his trial, avoiding a possible death sentence in the event of conviction by a jury.

However, in a tearful plea before Kuehn was sentenced, Krevi’s mother asked Schempp to sentence Kuehn to death anyway.

“I want to push the button, pull the switch, whatever, to end his vile life,” Phoebe Emily Krevi Rose, of Portland, Ore., told Schempp. “The only just sentence is death in the gas chamber. . . . I beg of you, judge. Please, please sentence Kuehn to death.”

But Schempp told Rose that she did not have the authority to sentence Kuehn to death without a jury’s verdict and recommendation. She said she sympathized with the victim’s family and friends and likened Kuehn to Jeffrey L. Dahmer of Milwaukee, who is accused of 15 killings. Schempp placed much of the blame for Krevi’s death on Kuehn’s drug use.

“This man is just as bad as Mr. Dahmer,” Schempp said of Kuehn. “He will die and he will die in prison. But not at the hands of the executioner.”

Rose said her daughter was a former Miss Congeniality in the Miss New Hampshire beauty pageant who was nearly killed in a car accident eight years ago. After spending months in a coma and undergoing repeated surgery on her legs, Krevi progressed from a wheelchair to a walker to a cane.

“Emily’s inner strength was admirable,” Rose said. “I never once saw or heard her feeling sorry for herself. She had come so far. . . .”

Krevi was a member of TownKeepers, a community group that focuses on driving crime out of the Sepulveda Boulevard neighborhood where she lived, and was known in the area as someone who would open her door to others needing help, said Mary Lou Holte, founder of the group.

Kuehn did not speak during his sentencing. Afterward, Kuehn’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Robert A. Fefferman, said Kuehn, a former Los Angeles police Explorer Scout, was physically abused as a child.

Gootman said he was satisfied with the plea agreement and sentence, because it assured that Kuehn would never be released from prison. He said the prosecution would have been somewhat hampered in a trial by a judge’s ruling that police had illegally searched Kuehn’s apartment; thus Gootman could not have used the discovery of Krevi’s jewelry against Kuehn.

“Society is protected,” Gootman said of the plea agreement. “That is our job.”