RIVERSIDE - Moments before announcing punishment, a judge compared the lives of a slain 40-year-old Moreno Valley man to the life of the man convicted of killing him.

The victim, Jeffery Owens, served in the military, maintained professional employment and volunteered with various charities, Riverside County Superior Judge Edward D. Webster told the courtroom Friday.

That's not the defendant, the judge said. He described Dorian Lee Gutierrez, of Riverside, as a ninth-grade dropout, chronic drinker and committed member of a criminal street gang.

"It takes a special kind of person to take a knife and stab another person," Webster said. "Clearly, he's a dangerous person."

Webster then sentenced the 21-year-old Gutierrez to 25 years to life in state prison.

Owens' death sparked an outcry from community activists who said the June 2002 slaying was a hate crime against a gay man. The stabbing occurred outside a gay nightclub called The Menagerie that shared a parking lot with a tavern where Gutierrez and his friends had been drinking.

A judge dismissed hate-crime allegations citing insufficient evidence. The complex case included testimony from medical experts because Owens died a day after the attack at the Riverside County Regional Medical Center in Moreno Valley. A nurse accidentally gave him an overdose of a blood thinner called heparin.

Deputy District Attorney John Davis argued successfully that Owens never would have been in the hospital if not for the stabbing.

A jury convicted Gutierrez in February of second-degree murder and a charge of assault with a deadly weapon involving Owens' friend, Michael Bussee.

Owens, Bussee and two others were standing in a parking lot looking at Owens' vacation photographs when someone struck Bussee in the face. The unanticipated attack angered Owens, and the Air Force veteran wanted to protect his friends.

Gutierrez's attorney, Supervising Deputy Public Defender Charles Butler, told the judge his client has no record of serious felonies and suggested Owens initiated much of the follow-up fighting or at least was a willing participant.

"Jeffery Owens took actions that provoked Mr. Gutierrez and his friends and, as a result, he lost his life," Butler told the judge.

The judge viewed it differently.

"Mr. Bussee was caught completely unaware and both victims were vulnerable during the assaults," Webster said. "Mr. Owens was on the ground. He was stabbed after he had been subdued."

Owens' brothers addressed the court as did Bussee, who read a statement on behalf of Owens' partner, Jeffrey Holland, who could not attend the sentencing.

"Try to imagine the jarring and horrifying experience of suddenly and unexpectedly losing the one you love -- especially in such a manner," Bussee read.

Gutierrez's mother, Maria Gutierrez, 53, asked the judge for leniency and told Webster her son has been remorseful during her twice-weekly visits to see him in jail.

"Jeff defended his friends and unfortunately that cost him his life," Brent Owens said. "In my eyes, that makes Jeff a hero."

Reach John Welsh at (951) 368-9474 or jwelsh@pe.com