Man Murdered Urologist Over 21-Year-Old Grudge

Stanwood Elkus gets life in prison
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 19, 2017 11:15 AM CDT
Barber Who Murdered Urologist Over Old Grudge Sentenced
In this July 27, 2017, file photo, Stanwood Elkus, accused of shooting and killing Ronald Gilbert at Gilbert's office in Newport Beach in 2013, is wheeled into Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, Calif.   (Sam Gangwer/The Orange County Register via AP, File)

A retired barber who murdered a urologist inside his Southern California office in 2013 over a 21-year-old grudge was sentenced Friday to life in prison plus 10 years without the possibility of parole, the Los Angeles Times reports. In 1992, Ronald Gilbert—then a medical resident at the veterans hospital in Long Beach—worked with other doctors to diagnose Stanwood Elkus, who was dealing with frequent urination, with a narrowing of the urethra. Two other doctors at the VA ultimately performed a simple urethra-widening surgery without Gilbert; Elkus firmly believed the surgery was botched and damaged his prostate, the Orange County Register reports, causing incontinence, erectile dysfunction, and diminished sex drive, all of which led his longtime girlfriend to leave him. A DA on the case told jurors that Elkus held a grudge against Gilbert over the incident.

More than two decades later, Elkus—who had often seethed about his medical issues in the ensuing years "to anyone who would listen," per the Register—used a fake name to make an appointment with Gilbert on Jan. 28, 2013, at his Newport Beach office, where he entered the exam room and shot him 10 times, killing him. The now-79-year-old pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but jurors found that he was sane and convicted him last month of first-degree murder. Per KTLA, jurors also affirmed a special-circumstance allegation of lying in wait. That, along with a sentencing enhancement allegation of personal use of a gun, added 10 years to his sentence. "The world was robbed of a model citizen … our children were robbed of an amazing father," said Elizabeth Gilbert, Ronald Gilbert's wife, at the sentencing hearing, recalling her husband's death just days before his 53rd birthday. (More murder stories.)

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