Man Sentenced To Life For 1984 Murder Of South Bay Woman

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA – A man convicted of the 1984 murder of his restaurant supervisor at Los Angeles International Airport was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The prison term, handed down by Superior Court Judge Edmund W. Clarke Jr., marks the third time Henry Earl Duncan, now 53, has been sentenced for the Nov. 13, 1984, stabbing death of Josephine Eileen DeBaun of Redondo Beach.

Duncan was initially convicted of first-degree murder and the special circumstance allegation of murder during the course of a robbery and sentenced to death for killing the 28-year-old mother of two.

But a three-justice panel from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the special circumstance allegation and vacated his death sentence.

In November 2010, a jury in Torrance again found true the robbery special circumstance allegation. The District Attorney's Office decided against seeking the death penalty a second time and Duncan was sentenced in December 2010 to life in prison without the possibility of parole, triggering the latest appeal and a 2016 decision that again overturned the special circumstance allegation, prompting a third trial in which jurors again found it to be true.

City News Service and Patch staffer Emily Holland contributed to this post; Image via Shutterstock