Roommate Gets 4 Years for Slaying Musician

A Van Nuys man who shot and killed his roommate, apparently in an argument over rent money, was sentenced Tuesday to four years in state prison, the maximum term under California law.

Joseph Wayne Stec, 38, had been convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the August, 1984, death of Robert Gleim, 30, with whom he shared a house. Police said Gleim was shot with a stolen .20-caliber rifle during an argument after he demanded that Stec pay his share of the rent.

During a jury trial that ended in June, Stec, a musician, contended that the weapon accidentally discharged during a struggle. Deputy Dist. Atty. Lloyd Nash, however, charged that the defendant intended to kill Gleim, also a musician.

“This case cries out for justice,” he told the court.

In sentencing Stec, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge James Albracht said he did not believe the defendant’s account of the slaying. “Mr. Stec didn’t give assistance. He left a dying men bleeding in his room,” Albracht said.

Before sentencing, the victim’s father, Robert Gleim, said that his son’s slaying had left “wounds that will never heal. They will be open and festering for the rest of my life.”