Despite having a successful career in Hollywood spanning a decade, 34-year-old Claudine Longet turned murderer in 1976 after she shot her boyfriend and Olympic skier, Peter Sabich. Yet, she got a sentencing so lenient that it felt like a public slap.
The murder of Vladimir “Spider” Sabich, a famous alpine ski racer from California, is a tragedy that demands scrutiny, not sensationalism. On March 21, 1976, in Sabich and Longet’s Aspen, Colorado home, the 31-year-old Olympian was shot with a single bullet to his abdomen and died in the ambulance on his way to the hospital.
Longet’s defense was immediate: it was an accident. She claimed she was attempting to learn how to operate the gun that Sabich had been showing her when the weapon misfired. However, she had the perfect motive for the crime. The Olympian had apparently been planning to break off their relationship, and friends and insiders alleged that Longet was growing increasingly insecure.
The sabotaged trial of Claudine Longet
While motive alone cannot be admitted as proof, Longet’s defense was far from airtight, too. Yet, procedural missteps and multiple errors committed by authorities fatally wounded the case, sabotaging the prosecution from the start. For one, the police collected Longet’s blood sample without a warrant, making the results, which reportedly showed cocaine in her system, inadmissible in court.
They also confiscated her diary without judicial authorization, which could’ve allegedly proved her obsession with Sabish and fear of getting dumped. The murder weapon itself was mishandled, which was wrapped in a towel, removed, and stored awkwardly by officers. It could not be examined by ballistics experts in time, making it yet another core evidence that wasn’t produced to the court.
So, the autopsy report became the centerpiece of the prosecution, which suggested that Sabich was bent over and facing away from Longet when he was shot. This theoretically conflicted with her story of pointing the gun mid-instruction. But the autopsy alone could not make a strong case against her. So, the jury found Longet guilty not of manslaughter or murder after only four days of trial.
One life ended, and another continued to enjoy hers
Due to insufficient evidence, Longet was instead charged with negligent homicide on Jan. 14, 1977, marking a dramatic downgrade from the felony charges she should’ve originally faced. “I wouldn’t want her to go to prison, heavens no. By no means is she the type of person who should be in jail. I don’t think she’s a threat to society,” one juror said.
At the end, Longet was sentenced to a mere 30 days in prison, that too, of her choosing, along with a $250 fine. But everyone knew it was a cold-blooded murder, and not an accidental death. Anger swelled in Aspen and across the country, and many felt that the investigation was deliberately botched. Prosecutor and former district attorney Frank Tucker also said, “I’ve always known she shot Spider Sabich and meant to do it.”
But despite everything, Longet got away with the crime by just spending 30 weekend days in prison and continues to live a normal life in Aspen.
