San Diego

A Pasadena dentist convicted of killing his wife near her La Jolla home was given a January retrial date Monday to determine whether he was sane at the time.

Douglas Dustin, 54, was found guilty March 17 of first-degree murder, but the jury deadlocked over the sanity phase. Dustin’s conviction for the Sept. 13, 1987, murder of his estranged wife, Adelheid (Heide) Dustin, 50, will stand, and the second jury will have only the sanity issue to decide.

If found to be sane, Dustin will be sent to state prison for 25 years to life. If found insane, he is likely to be committed to a state mental hospital for the criminally insane, possibly for life.

In his first trial, Dustin was represented by attorney John Mitchell, whom he had hired with his own funds. But Dustin requested and got a public defender, William Youmans, to represent him at his second trial.

Dustin’s office was in Pasadena, and he lived in San Marino with his son at the time of the shooting.

Mitchell had said that most of the examining psychiatrists found Dustin to be insane at the time of the slaying, but Deputy Dist. Atty. Mike Carpenter argued to jurors that Dustin could distinguish right from wrong.