Gwyneth's Stalker Sentenced

By Stephen M. Silverman

06/18/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

Ohio pizza-deliveryman Dante Soiu, 49, was convicted of stalking Gwyneth Paltrow on Thursday in a Los Angeles Superior Court. Until the verdict this week, the case had been kept under wraps, with Paltrow's name changed to "anonymous" in the court documents in order to protect her privacy. Yet during the trial the Oscar winner ("Shakespeare in Love") took to the witness stand herself to tell of the pornographic letters and packages Soiu sent her, along with thousands of e-mails, candy, flowers and pizza, say reports. He also showed up twice at the Los Angeles home of Paltrow's parents, director Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner, said Paltrow, 28. She also testified that her dread of Soiu sparked nightmares and made her fear being sexually assaulted. After the guilty verdict, Judge Robert O'Neill declared Soiu to be legally insane and ordered him to a psychiatric facility until he is judged to have recovered, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Rhonda Saunders told Reuters.