Lab Technician Gets 16 Years for Murdering Her Husband

Calling the murder “the type of violence that only members of a Manson family were capable of,” a Van Nuys judge Friday sentenced 27-year-old Terri Lynn Scrape to 16 years to life in prison for the 1984 stabbing-beating death of her husband.

As Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp imposed sentence, Scrape swayed, then clenched her hand and quietly sobbed.

“The painful, agonizing death that Mr. Scrape must have gone through, and then knowing that his wife--the woman that he loved--was doing this to him, is just mind-boggling,” Schempp said.

Terri Scrape, a laboratory technician in Inglewood, was convicted of second-degree murder by an eight-woman, four-man jury last month for the May, 1984, slaying of her 40-year-old husband, Lee Andrew Scrape.

For a first-degree murder conviction, prosecutors would have had to prove premeditation.

Body Found in Home

Scrape’s nude body was found lying face down in the living room of the couple’s Panorama City home with multiple stab wounds and blows to the head, chest and back. Police said the murder weapons were a 3 1/2-inch-long paring knife and a fireplace poker.

Throughout her trial, Scrape maintained that her husband, a state disability-claims evaluator, had been the victim of a botched robbery. She said that, after she and her husband of 16 months spent a romantic evening drinking champagne and watching the movie “Tender Mercies,” she retired to the couple’s bedroom.

Scrape testified that she slept soundly that night and that, after she discovered her husband’s body early in the morning, she ran hysterically to neighbors for help.

Neighbors, however, testified that they heard a violent argument at the Scrape house the night of the murder and recalled hearing the voices of Terri Scrape, her husband and another man.

During the trial, several witnesses testified that Terri Scrape was having an affair with an ex-convict who police said was a cocaine dealer in the San Fernando Valley. Relatives of the victim testified that the Scrapes were having marital problems, and that the defendant had a history of promiscuity.

Comments From Victim’s Sister

At Friday’s sentencing, the victim’s sister, Pamela Scrape, urged that Schempp sentence the defendant to the maximum 16 years to life.

With her voice quavering at times, Pamela Scrape said that the “misery and agony Andy suffered in knowing his wife plunged a knife into his back could be no more painful than the months he spent living with her sleazy and subhuman behavior.”

Pamela Scrape told the court that she called her elderly parents in Arkansas to tell them that their only son had been killed.

‘We Exist Without Happiness’

“Their last years will be filled with painful memories, anger and frustration. The darkest side of mankind has touched my family. We have lost our innocence about humanity. We exist without happiness, without spirit,” the sister said.

The defendant, mascara smeared under her eyes, stood erect, looking straight ahead throughout Friday’s 40-minute proceeding.

Schempp called Terri Scrape “a greedy, manipulative, self-centered user of decent people with absolutely no remorse for her wrongdoing.”

The judge said, “My only regret is that the law will not allow me to inflict a more several punishment.”

Scrape will be eligible for parole after serving eight years.