Transient Sentenced to 12 Years in Woman's Stabbing Death in Hollywood

By FRED SHUSTER
City News Service

A homeless panhandler with an extensive arrest record was sentenced today to a dozen years in state prison for stabbing a 23-year-old woman to death outside the Hollywood & Highland Center after she refused to pay a dollar for snapping photos of transients.

Dustin James Kinnear, 27, pleaded no contest last week to voluntary manslaughter after jurors indicated they were deadlocked following a day of deliberations in his trial for the June, 18, 2013, death of Christine Calderon.

Red hair tied in a ponytail and his left leg jumping throughout the hearing, Kinnear sat expressionless, occasionally shaking his head as the victim’s mother, Yolonde Tassin, told the court about the impact of her youngest child’s death.

“My daughter’s blood was spilled in the streets of Hollywood,” Tassin said, describing the victim as “my companion and my caretaker.”

Calderon, who planned to study civil engineering, worked three jobs, including one that began before dawn, Tassin said.

“She was so young and talented and had so much to offer,” her mother said, telling the judge she was being treated for depression triggered by her daughter’s death.

“We shopped, traveled and took our vacations together,” Tassin said. “My heart is damaged. ... I miss my baby girl every day.”

Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry sentenced Kinnear to 11 years, plus an additional year for use of a deadly weapon, and ordered him to pay about $7,000 in restitution, fines and court costs. The judge made no further comment.

Calderon and a friend were walking along the Hollywood Walk of Fame near the Hollywood & Highland Center at the start of summer vacation last year when they began snapping photos, including one of a sign held by co-defendant Brian Joseph Widdows.

Widdows and Kinnear demanded money, and, during an altercation, a third transient, Jason Joel Wolstone, put Calderon in a headlock.

During the fight, Kinnear got on top of Calderon and stabbed her, according to testimony.

After Calderon and her friend ran away, the victim realized she had been injured.

Her friend, Robert Harden, testified that he and Calderon were “panicking” when she ran her hands down her clothes and realized there was blood. He said the two made their way to an elevator, where he saw “the size of her wound” and realized “it was really bad.”

Calderon died at a hospital hours later.

During the four-day trial, Wolstone said he had seen Kinnear, whose street name was “Red,” going “nose to nose” with Calderon.

After the altercation, the three men met up at McDonald’s, where Kinnear said, “I stuck somebody,” Wolstone told jurors.

Wolstone and Widdows were arrested after they returned to the scene of the stabbing.

Wolstone pleaded no contest to one count of assault and was sentenced in April to two years in state prison. Widdows also pleaded no contest to being an accessory after the fact and received a two-year prison term.

Over the last nine years, Kinnear was arrested at least 46 times, including seven arrests for assault with a deadly weapon, according to news reports that cited court records and interviews.

Along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he reportedly had a reputation as an aggressive panhandler and troublemaker.

Kinnear’s mother told the Los Angeles Times that her son had been in and out of mental health treatment facilities since age 5 and suffered from multiple conditions that could make him violent.

“I always knew I would get a call about him being dead or doing something awful,” April Pena, who is a police detective in Tucson, told the newspaper.

Kinnear’s plea resulted in a relatively light sentence since manslaughter generally involves cases in which the defendant may have intended to harm another person, but did not mean to kill them.

PHOTO Patch file photo.

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