Man sentenced for killing ex-girlfriend, infant son

A Bonita man who strangled his 10-month-old son and the baby's mother because she was pressuring him to admit parentage was sentenced today to consecutive life prison terms with no possibility of parole.

Dennis Potts, 25, was convicted Sept. 10 of two counts of first-degree murder in the July 26, 2006, deaths of 22-year-old Tori Vienneau and their child, Dean Springstube.

Judge Bernard Revak, who has worked in the criminal justice system for nearly 45 years, said the case "cried out'' for consecutive sentences.


"This case stands at the top of the list of cruel, uncaring, brutal (crimes) ... with the gravest amount of malice that I have ever seen,'' the judge said.

Revak said he hoped Potts would never be released from prison.

Deputy District Attorney Per Hellstrom called Potts "amoral, selfish and vindictive.''

"This man executed his own son,'' the prosecutor said, calling the murders of Vienneau and her child "one of the most evil acts this community has ever seen.''

The prosecutor said Potts caught Vienneau off guard by telling her they were going out to dinner in La Jolla. Once in her apartment, Potts strangled her and then strangled the child in his crib, the prosecutor said.

"This is not a crime that this man should ever be released from prison,'' Hellstrom told the judge. "He should spend the rest of his life in a cage.''

A "ping'' from a cell phone tower at 6:44 p.m. put the defendant near the victim's apartment in south San Diego around the time she was killed, the prosecutor said.

The man who the defense claimed was the real killer, Daniel Moen, couldn't have committed the crimes because he was at work, the prosecutor said. Besides, Moen cared for Vienneau and loved her baby, Hellstrom said.

Moen's sister, Breanne, told that judge that her brother was "hit hard'' by the murders of his best friend and her son.

"Daniel took it to heart to help his friend out,'' his sister said. "Dean was Daniel's buddy.''

Vienneau's father, Roy Herroz, said Potts' goal was murdering his daughter and her baby and getting away with it.

"What kind of animal murders his own son?'' he asked. "What kind of parents stand beside such an animal?''

Herroz said he lost not only his daughter and grandson, but his job and his wife as he knew her before the murders.

"She is heavily medicated just to get by,'' he said. "We're still together, but we're broken.

"Let Dennis Potts rot in his cell,'' he said. "That's where he deserves to be.''

Hs wife, Dayna, said Potts' choice to kill her daughter and grandson "went beyond evil.''