PEDIATRICIAN CONVICTED OF MURDER.

Byline: Howard Breuer and Gina Keating Staff Writers

PASADENA - A pediatrician who strangled a colleague after learning she was pregnant with his child was convicted Monday of second-degree murder.

Dr. Kevin Paul Anderson, 41, of La Verne - who tried to convince jurors he killed Dr. Deepti Gupta of Glendale in the heat of passion in response to threats against his family - showed little emotion as the verdict was read.

Defense attorney Michael Abzug, who had asked the jury for a lesser, voluntary manslaughter conviction, declined to say what he, Anderson or Anderson's family thought of the decision.

``The verdict doesn't really change the tragic reality of the case, which is that a woman's dead, her child's without her mother, (Anderson's) career is ruined, his child is without a father,'' Abzug said. ``It's a very depressing and tragic result, regardless of what happened in the courtroom.''

He said he will prepare post-trial motions seeking a lenient sentence.

Pasadena Superior Court Judge Teri Schwartz ordered Anderson back for sentencing on Feb. 21, 2001.

Behind him, Anderson's wife and a few friends held hands and looked upset.

Deputy District Attorney Marian Thompson predicted Anderson will get 15 years to life for the murder, plus three to five years because the jury found that Anderson knowingly terminated Gupta's pregnancy.

Thompson told the jury Anderson planned the murder because Gupta had become an ``inconvenient lover'' whose pregnancy threatened his marriage, career and finances.

The deputy D.A. added that although she was disappointed the jury didn't convict on first-degree murder, ``we're satisfied that (Anderson's) life is over.''

The verdict essentially means Anderson intended to harm or kill Gupta but did not necessarily plan the slaying.

In order to convict on manslaughter, the jury would have had to find Anderson reacted in the same manner as any ordinary, reasonable person.

According to trial testimony, the two doctors met Nov. 11, 1999, on a turnout along Angeles Crest Highway, where they discussed problems resulting from their affair, her pregnancy, and various business conflicts.

Anderson said that when Gupta made statements he interpreted as threats against his wife and 8-year-old daughter, he snapped, strangled her with a Snoopy necktie, doused her with gasoline and pushed her and her vehicle off a 450-foot cliff.

``I did the absolute wrong thing at that point. It was very stupid,'' Anderson testified during the trial.

``I thought maybe, you know, I could make this look like a traffic accident, the car goes over the cliff, you know, bursts into flames.''

UCLA Professor Vijay Gupta, husband of the 33-year-old murder victim, said it was ``a travesty of the American justice system'' that Anderson beat the death penalty.

``There's so much evidence that he planned this murder, and I will pray every day that he will go to hell,'' Gupta said.

He remembered his wife, a Pasadena-area pediatrician, as ``a very unique woman ... and wonderful mother, wife and daughter. I just cannot imagine that she's gone.''

The jury foreman, an Altadena man who asked to remain anonymous, said the panel agreed Anderson's testimony was not believable, but individual jurors' opinions swung between first- and second-degree murder.

The foreman characterized their deliberations as ``not contentious'' but exhaustive.

``From my point of view, we worked through every single point ad nauseam,'' he said.

A South Pasadena juror, who also declined to be named, said ``everyone had their own reasons'' for choosing the lesser charge.

``It really came down to the jury instructions,'' she said. ``There wasn't sufficient evidence to prove first-degree.''

She added that Thompson didn't thoroughly convince the jury that items found in Anderson's vehicle - such as a can of gasoline, a few packs of matches, yardwork gloves and a piece of rope - constituted a ``murder kit'' Anderson brought along to kill Gupta.

``There were other reasons for those objects and items to be in his car . . . and certain instances where there could have been other explanations for certain actions,'' she said.

The juror said Anderson's stature as a physician was not a factor in their finding.

``I think we all thought about that, but it didn't enter into it,'' she said.

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