Dentist Who Murdered His Mother At Her Beverly Hills Home Sentenced

LOS ANGELES, CA — A now-former dentist convicted of the financially motivated murder of his mother at her Beverly Hills home was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In a lengthy statement shortly before the sentence was imposed, Daniel Yacobi maintained that he had been wrongfully convicted of the Oct. 9, 2017, death of his 67-year-old mother, Violet.

"I would never harm a hair on her head because she was my mom," the defendant said, calling what happened to her "an accident ... not a homicide."

"I'm not a murderer. I'm not a criminal. I'm a law-abiding citizen," Yacobi said, adding that he is "suffering because I'm alone."

The 43-year-old defendant was convicted Aug. 22 of first-degree murder, with jurors finding true the special-circumstance allegation of murder for financial gain.

The Los Angeles resident told Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William Sadler that one of his biggest regrets was not testifying in his own defense.

Yacobi said he hoped that he would have a successful appeal that would give him "another chance to take the stand."

The judge countered that he believed the evidence had proven that Yacobi killed his mother.

"The financial motive appears to be the dominant motive," the judge said.

Authorities were called to the woman's home in the 600 block of Roxbury Drive on Oct. 10, 2017 after Yacobi met his sister at their mother's home to check on her after unsuccessful attempts to reach her by phone.

Yacobi was arrested in February 2018 in connection with his mother's killing. He has remained behind bars since then.

Deputy District Attorney Shane Michael told jurors during the trial that "Daniel Yacobi killed his mother with his bare hands," saying that his history of Google searches in the weeks leading up to the woman's death showed that he had been "planning the murder."

The prosecutor told jurors that the topics of Yacobi's searches included "neck crack," "best chokeholds UFC," "how to search Google in private," "choking-related deaths" and "falling downstairs."

"He did it for the money. ... He strangled her to death so he could get the inheritance," the deputy district attorney said, noting that Yacobi's father died in October 2016 and that there was a "loss of financial support" and a "deep resentment and hatred of his mother."

The prosecutor told jurors that the defendant said in a March 2017 conversation that he was "in a rut" and was "money-hungry because I don't have it."

Michael said there was "no reasonable way to believe that Violet Yacobi hurtled or fell over the second-floor stair railing to the marble floor below, where she was found dead. He said her injuries "just are not consistent" with the defense's claim that she accidentally fell to her death.

The deputy medical examiner who performed the autopsy on the woman concluded that she had been asphyxiated, along with a colleague who subsequently reviewed reports, photos and CT scans, according to the prosecutor.

The deputy district attorney noted that Yacobi denied being at his mother's house the day she died, saying that surveillance video footage of the white Jaguar that Yacobi was driving that day showed it in his mother's neighborhood that day and that other evidence put the defendant in and around the house.

Defense attorney Omar Abukurah told jurors at the beginning of the trial that there was only one conclusion that jurors should draw at the end of the case -- that "Daniel Yacobi is not guilty."

He questioned the prosecution's contention that the woman had been strangled, countering that a forensic pathologist retained by the defense would opine that the woman's death was caused by a blunt-force injury from falling off of a second-story balcony.

He told jurors that the woman had "no defensive wounds on her hands" and had been taking a "cocktail" of prescription medications.

"They say he killed for the money," Abukurah told jurors, adding that his client had been negotiating to buy a dental practice in Inglewood and had been able to secure a loan for close to $1 million without his mother co-signing for it.

As for the Google searches, he said authorities had "picked a few out that seem suspicious that make you think he's plotting a blueprint" of how to kill his mother. He noted that his client had a "young baby" at the time and may have been concerned about the marble stairs being slippery.

He argued that the Google search involving fingerprints on human skin followed his client getting a series of allergy shots that his client thought looked like a fingerprint on his skin.

"They want to bend evidence to fit their story, but it doesn't work," the defense attorney said.

Of the investigation into the woman's death, Abukurah said, "Once they had a target, it was easy."

The prosecutor countered that investigators "were not jumping to conclusions" and "were not looking for a scapegoat."

By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH
City News Service