Man Who Stabbed His Date Outside Movie Theater Sentenced to Prison

A 20-year-old Des Plaines man was sentenced to 27 years in prison in the brutal stabbing of a co-worker outside a Deer Park theater while the two were on a date in January 2015.

The prison sentence handed down by Lake County judge Daniel Shanes was the near-maximum for the charge of attempted murder, which a jury found Daniel Dion guilty of in November. That jury did not buy an insanity defense brought by Dion’s lawyer rejecting an alternative verdict of guilty but mentally ill, the Lake County News-Sun reported following the trial.

• Lawyers to Use Insanity Defense in Brutal Attack

Shanes during the sentencing hearing on Thursday acknowledged Dion had some challenges in his life--his attorney Ian Kasper said Dion’s mental state went downhill after his grandfather died in 2009--and that this was Dion’s first brush with the criminal justice system, but also stated the prison time was appropriate for the vicious stabbing of Katie King of Vernon Hills.

“You tried. You planned a murder and an escape,” Shane told Dion during the nearly two-hour sentencing hearing. “What you did was cold, calculated, premeditated. You created a plan you intended to end with Miss King’s violent death.”

Dion stabbed King, 24, at least 20 times in the face and neck while in her vehicle outside the Century Theater, which is located at 21600 W. Field Parkway in Deer Park. Dion met with King “under the ruse that they would be going to a movie together,” police said.

Dion told police he woke on the morning of the attack with the “intent to kill” King because she ”annoyed him.” King was able to escape the vehicle and run into the movie theater.

King took the stand during the sentencing hearing on Thursday, crying softly and addressing Dion and the court, the Lake County News-Sun reports. She said the attack leaves her with injuries that will likely require her to take medication for the rest of her life, adding that she felt like a "like a 60-year-old in a 20-year-old body."

I'm afraid of you getting out and coming after me and finishing the job," King said Tuesday. "I'm sorry, but you did get yourself here."

Dion also addressed the court on Thursday, the Lake County News-Sun reports.

"I'm not proud of what I did to Katie King. It was despicable," he said. "I had some problems going on in my life and took them out on her. But I'm not going to use that as a crutch. I hope she is OK."

Dion faced between 6 and 30 years in prison.

More via the Daily Herald and the Lake County News-Sun