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Vladimir Peter Sabich, Jr. (January 10, 1945 – March 21, 1976) was an American alpine ski racer, a member of the U.S. Ski Team on the World Cup circuit in the late 1960s. He competed at the 1968 Winter Olympics and was the pro ski racing champion in 1971 and 1972. Sabich was killed by gunshot under controversial circumstances in 1976. Late in the afternoon on Sunday, March 21, 1976, Sabich returned from a training session at Aspen Highlands and a brief visit with Beattie, whom he planned to meet for dinner. While preparing to shower, he was shot in the bathroom of his Starwood home by his live-in girlfriend, singer-actress Claudine Longet. The two had met at a pro-celebrity event four years earlier in 1972 in Bear Valley, California, and had quickly become an item. She claimed the gun discharged accidentally when he was showing her how it worked. Sabich was hit by a single gunshot in the abdomen and lost a significant amount of blood before an ambulance arrived. He died on the way to Aspen Valley Hospital with Longet at his side, shortly after 5 pm. Sabich was 31 years and 2 months old. Longet, 34, was arrested and charged with the shooting. At the trial, Longet repeated the claim that the gun had accidentally fired when Sabich was showing her how to use it. The Pitkin County Sheriffs, who made the arrest, made two procedural errors that aided Longet's defense: without warrants, they took a blood sample from her and confiscated her diary. According to prosecutors, the sample showed the presence of cocaine in her blood, and her diary reportedly contradicted her claim that her relationship with Sabich had not soured. In addition, the gun (which had a defect requiring multiple trigger pulls before discharging) was mishandled by non-weapons experts. As they were unable to cite any of the disallowed material, prosecutors did use the autopsy report to suggest that when Sabich was struck, he was bent over, facing away, and at least 6 feet (1.8 m) from Longet, which would be inconsistent with the position and relative distance of someone demonstrating the operation of a firearm. The jury convicted her of a lesser charge—misdemeanor criminal negligence—and sentenced her to pay a small fine and spend 30 days in jail. The judge allowed Longet to choose the days she served, believing that this arrangement would allow her to spend the most time with her children, and she chose to work off most of her sentence on weekends. (Critical reaction to the verdict and sentencing was exacerbated when she subsequently vacationed with her defense attorney, Ron Austin, who was married at the time; Longet and Austin later married and still live in Aspen.) After the criminal trial, Sabich's parents filed a civil lawsuit against Longet in May 1977. The case was eventually resolved out of court in September 1979, with the proviso that Longet never tell or write about her story.