A 20-year-old Des Plaines man was sentenced to 27 years in prison Thursday for attempted murder in the brutal stabbing attack of a Vernon Hills woman outside of a Deer Park movie theater two years ago.
“You ferociously and viciously stabbed her time and time and time again,” Lake County Circuit Judge Daniel Shanes told Daniel Dion as he handed down the sentence.
“The pages of history are filled with people who attempt murder and think they can get away with it,” Shanes said. “You tried. You planned a murder and an escape. But for the grace of God it didn’t end differently.”
A Lake County jury found Dion guilty of attempted murder on Nov. 4 for the multiple stabbing of Katie King, now 25, outside of a movie theater while they were on a date Jan. 8, 2015.
Dion faced a sentencing range of between six and 30 years in prison. He had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the attempted murder charge, and his defense had focused on proving the insanity assertion during the trial rather than trying to contest that he had stabbed King.
Assistant State’s Attorney Lauren Kalcheim Rothenberg said at the sentencing hearing Thursday that the attack was not a crime of passion or anger, but a case in which Dion “tried to kill Katie because he wanted to kill someone and see if he could get away with it.”
She had asked Shanes to impose the maximum 30-year-sentence to deter others and “for the safety of the community.”
Defense attorney Ian Kasper said Dion has a history of mental illness, and was influenced by hallucinations at the time of the attack. Kasper said Thursday that Dion was following “command hallucinations” when he stabbed King.
Dr. Karen Chantry, testifying for the defense in Dion’s attempted murder trial, had said she believed he suffered from schizophrenia or a similar disorder and that his mental state during the attack met “the criteria of not guilty by reason of insanity.”
A psychiatrist testifying as a prosecution witness said she believed Dion was not insane and was instead “malingering,” feigning a serious mental illness due to his circumstances.
The jury rejected the insanity defense in delivering its verdict.
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The sentencing hearing began with King taking the stand, crying softly, and addressing Dion as he sat at the defense table.
“I honestly thought I forgave you, Danny, but a wise man once told me that to forgive you have to forget. I’m not at that stage,” she said.
King said her injuries will likely leave her taking medication for the rest of her life, and that she feels “like a 60-year-old in a 20-year-old body.”
She said she didn’t hate Dion and wasn’t mad at him, but was fearful of him.
“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.”
Prior to being sentenced, after King had left the courtroom, Dion addressed the court.
“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 said he was planning on “being more self-controlled when I get out and putting this behind me.”
Kasper argued for a maximum sentence of 12 years, arguing that Dion’s mental condition would deteriorate the longer he is in prison, especially without proper, ongoing treatment.
Kasper said he will file a motion for the judge to reconsider the sentence, and Shanes scheduled a Jan. 12 hearing for that motion. Kasper also said after the hearing that the case would be appealed.
After the sentencing, King’s mother, Mary King, said of Dion that, “He’s where he needs to be.”
“I feel the sentence was definitely justified. He wanted to kill my kid,” she said.
“I think justice was served,” Rothenberg said after the sentencing. “This was a brutal crime for no reason.”
During the trial, Rothenberg said Dion planned the attack by pretending to take King out on a date, fled the scene on foot after stabbing the victim in her car, and went straight to his car, which was parked at his nearby workplace.
But when it wouldn’t start, and his boss saw him covered in blood, Dion, “knew he wouldn’t get away with it and decided at that point he was going to play insane,” she said.
King testified at the trial that she had a dating relationship with Dion, who was a co-worker of hers at a Deer Park business, and the two had decided to see a movie after work that day.
She said the two were inside her car outside the theater when Dion began kissing her aggressively and then grabbed a knife and stabbed her repeatedly as she tried to escape the car.
When she did escape, after being stabbed more than 20 times, she staggered into the theater lobby before collapsing and being rescued by police and paramedics.
King was in critical condition before and after surgery to treat the wounds, and the first sheriff’s deputy responding to the scene at the theater testified that after seeing her, he didn’t believe she would survive.
The deputy turned on his body camera, and in a video shown during the trial, she could be seen, drenched in blood, being asked who had stabbed her.
“Danny … Danny Dion,” she responded.
Dion has been held in Lake County Jail without bail since his arrest the night of the attack.
Dion must serve the 27-year term at 85 percent under state law. He will also be given credit toward the sentence for the 715 days he has spent in jail since his arrest.
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