Judge orders strict sentence for wife killer Dunn

The judge gave Scott Dunn a stricter sentence on one
of the arson charges.

By MARY GRZEBIENIAK

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

MERCER, Pa. — Scott Dunn blamed his years of cocaine use for leading up to the argument in which he “lost it” and killed his 22-year-old wife, Brandi Dunn, on Jan. 14, 2006.

“I wasn’t a man when this happened,” he said, adding he takes full responsibility for the crime and would take it back if he could.

Dunn, 28, of Slippery Rock, was sentenced to 24 years and four months to 52 years in prison Thursday for murdering his wife of six months, then setting her parents’ Grove City home on fire to cover his crime.

Earlier, Dunn had pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, two felony arson counts and one misdemeanor count of abuse of a corpse. Dunn initially claimed he struggled with an intruder fleeing the burning home but later admitted his involvement.

Judge Thomas Dobson of Mercer County Common Pleas Court used more severe sentencing guidelines for one of two arson charges, stating the crime was aggravated because Dunn, knowing his wife was dead, let fire and police officers risk their lives in rescue attempts by telling them there was a victim inside.

He added that Dunn’s explosive personality and controlling nature make him “a clear and present danger to society.”

Judge Dobson also commented that Dunn had deprived Brandi’s family of important closure during the funeral because the nature of her death made it impossible for them to view her body.

Possible appeal

Defense lawyer Stephen Misko said after the hearing he will file a motion with the court to reconsider the more severe guidelines on the arson charge, which added five years to the sentence, and said if that motion is denied, he may appeal the sentence.

District Attorney James Epstein said, however, that the stricter sentence was justified and added he does not believe an appeal can succeed.

Epstein said Dunn and his wife had an argument in which Dunn “struck out repeatedly in a homicidal rage,” shattering her skull by inflicting eight blows to her head with a hammer. The location of the blows indicated she had her back to him or was on the ground, he said.

The victim’s father, John Montgomery, 70, said he was stunned when Dunn called him at 4:30 a.m. in California, where he was staying at the time of the murder, and informed him his daughter was trapped in the burning family home.

Montgomery asked the court that Dunn serve his full term in prison with no early release or parole. He said his family is struggling with the death, and noted that Brandi is the second daughter he has lost. One of Brandi’s sisters died in a 1983 traffic accident.

In addition, he said he has cancer and his wife, Deborah, is hospitalized and in need of an organ transplant.

Dishonoring family

He said Dunn dishonored the Montgomery family as well as his own parents by the lies he told to cover up the murder. He added Dunn coldly stood in the receiving line at the funeral home and professed false grief at his wife’s death.

Montgomery said his family tried to talk Brandi out of marrying Dunn, whom she met when she was 16. But he said she loved him and so “we took him into our family.”

During the hearing, Dunn looked at the floor, occasionally glancing at the judge. He wept only when his father, Terry Dunn, asked for mercy on his son’s behalf.

The elder Dunn traced his son’s cocaine addiction to losing a 23-year-old brother to illness when Scott Dunn was 17. Dunn’s grandfather died shortly after. “The last 10 years of our life have been total hell,” he said. “I’m so sorry this ever happened.”

Epstein said Pennsylvania law requires Dunn to serve the minimum sentence and that when he comes up for parole, the family and the Commonwealth will have the opportunity to object.

Epstein said he will include a letter in Dunn’s file stating he should serve the maximum term.

Sentencing guidelines were more severe for Dunn because he has an earlier conviction for burglary in 1999 in a drug-related crime spree, the district attorney said.