Crime & Safety
Man who Fatally Stabbed Girlfriend in Studio City Park Gets 26 Years
Stephen Todd Joanou Jr. had stabbed his estranged girlfriend 19 times. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
A Burbank man who fatally stabbed his estranged girlfriend in a Studio City park was sentenced today to 26 years to life in state prison.
Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Gregory Dohi denied the defense's motion for a new trial for Stephen Todd Joanou Jr., along with a request to reduce the 27-year-old man's conviction from first-degree murder to second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter.
Joanou was found guilty March 24 of killing Patrina Sabella, whose body was found near a baseball field at South Weddington Park in the 10600 block of Valleyheart Drive in 2012. The 32-year-old Rosamond woman had been stabbed 19 times and was pronounced dead at the scene.
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Joanou was arrested later that afternoon and has remained jailed since then.
--City News Service
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