The convicted murderer of Malibu’s Gabriela Kabrins Alban has this week been sentenced to 20 years in South African prison.
Diego Novella, the scion of a wealthy family from Guatemala, was found guilty of the murder last month after a year-long trial in South Africa where the brutal crime occurred. The victim’s father, Malibu restaurateur Howdy Kabrins, attended every day of the emotionally devastating trial and returned to Cape Town last week for more excruciating testimony in the penalty phase.
The maximum sentence would have been 25 years. The defendant claimed diminished capacity due to a cocktail of drugs he apparently had taken before the murder.
Pollsmoor Prison where Novella will serve his sentence is known for its notoriously harsh living conditions housed with the most dangerous criminals in the system.