Man Gets 25 to Life for Killing Ex-Lover

A 38-year-old Tustin man convicted of shooting his estranged girlfriend during a jealous rage was sentenced Friday to a maximum of 25 years to life after a Superior Court rejected his bid for a new trial.

In an hourlong address to the court, Kirkland O’Hara professed his innocence, saying it was Dawn Hill, 34, who tried to kill him and that he shot her only in self-defense. In words that visibly angered the victim’s family, O’Hara, who was wounded in the mouth, said Hill had put a gun in his mouth. What happened next, he said, was a blur.

In denying motions for a new trial or to reduce O’Hara’s second-degree conviction, Judge John J. Ryan said, “The evidence of guilt, I believe, is overwhelming.”

Prosecutors said during the trial that in July 1995, a spurned O’Hara shot Hill in an upstairs bathroom, while her 8-year-old son was watching television downstairs. The son testified that after the shooting, O’Hara told him to go to his mother, and that the boy found her sprawled on the floor.

Hill’s sister, Barbara Waddell, nearly broke down when she spoke in court before sentencing. She described O’Hara as “a cancer” and “the most evil, vile person.”

“The really sad part is that he killed the only person who believed in him,” Waddell said. “She thought everyone had worth.”

Ryan also ordered O’Hara to pay $10,800, which was the cost of Hill’s funeral, in restitution to the victim’s family.