Man convicted after luring unrequited romantic interest to garage to murder her with 2-foot long ice ax

Jurors convicted Daniel Gunnarsson of murdering Katie Pham. (Images: Kern County District Attorney

Jurors convicted Daniel Gunnarsson of murdering Katie Pham. (Images: Kern County District Attorney’s Office)

A murder defendant may well spend the rest of his days behind bars for ambushing an unrequited romantic interest.

Records out of Kern County, California, show that Daniel Gunnarsson, 23, was sentenced on Thursday to 27 years and four months to life in prison, with 892 days credit (almost two and a half years) for time served. In addition, he must pay a total of $440.00 in fees and restitution.

Jurors convicted Gunnarsson at the end of August for murder in the first degree and mutilating a corpse.

Prosecutors have described him as terrorizing the victim, Katie Pham, 21, up to the time of the murder. The two briefly had a casual relationship, but Gunnarsson started acting hostile toward her.

In one example, he picked Pham up from Las Vegas several days before the murder and drove erratically at high speeds because she was on the phone and not paying attention to him, one of her friends told KGET.

This friend also claimed to overhear Gunnarsson insult Pham over the phone when she did not want to go to his home. When Pham did not return his feelings, Gunnarsson soured.

He called the victim a “dumb b—,” prosecutor Samantha Allen said, according to KGET.

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