Second Man Arrested in Wayne-Luby Assault Case

Newport Beach police announced Saturday that they have arrested a second suspect in the attack last October on Aissa Wayne, daughter of actor John Wayne, and her companion, financier Roger Luby.

Police identified the suspect as Jeffrey Kendall Bouey, 35, a swimming pool cleaner from Ventura County.

Christopher J. Evans, the deputy district attorney assigned to the case, said Wayne and Luby have identified Bouey as one of two men who bound, beat and threatened to kill them after the victims drove onto Luby’s $3-million Newport Beach estate on Oct. 3.

Evans has described the attack as a “contract assault” that was “cold, deliberate, premeditated.”

Bouey, arrested Friday evening outside his home in Simi Valley, was being held in Newport Beach City Jail. Bouey and the second suspect, Jerrel L. Hintergardt, 37, are being held on suspicion of conspiracy and assault with a deadly weapon.

Municipal Judge Russell A. Bostrom set Bouey’s bail at $1 million.

Police described Bouey as a friend of Hintergardt, of Burbank, who was arrested March 17. He is in Orange County Jail in lieu of $1-million bail.

In a new twist to the case, parts of a bomb were found in Hintergardt’s home, Evans disclosed in court Friday. Police found plastic caps, potassium nitrate, clay, shrapnel and a book detailing how to make bombs. The disclosure was made by Evans as he successfully opposed a motion by Hintergardt’s attorney to reduce the $1-million bail.

Police say Hintergardt is a former employee of private investigator O. Daniel Gal of Los Angeles, for whom an arrest warrant was issued 2 weeks ago in connection with the attack. The arrest warrant, filed in Municipal Court in Newport Beach, charges Gal with criminal conspiracy, assault with a deadly weapon, assault with a firearm and using violence on a witness. According to court documents, witnesses have told police that they saw Gal parked near Luby’s estate on the morning of the attack.

Gal has been questioned in connection with the attack and is in Europe.

Gal’s agency had been hired by Aissa Wayne’s former husband, Thomas A. Gionis of Pomona, an orthopedic surgeon, as part of a bitter custody fight over the couple’s 2-year-old daughter, Anastasia. Gionis won custody in January.

Police allege that Gionis paid Gal $40,000 during a 2-week period a month before the attack on Wayne and Luby.

Gionis could not be reached for comment.

The attack occurred in daylight after Wayne, 32, and Luby, 52, had driven through the electronically controlled gate to Luby’s home on 22nd Street near Irvine Avenue.

Police gave this account of the attack: Two men appearing to be construction workers walked through the open gate to a nearby garage and called out Luby’s name. When Luby acknowledged his name, one man struck him in the head with a pistol, knocking him against the garage door. The other man pushed Wayne to the garage floor and banged her head against the pavement.

The attackers bound both victims, and one slashed the Achilles’ tendon in Luby’s right leg and tried to slash the other as well.

One of the men said to Wayne, “You’re (messing) with the wrong people. If you screw up again, you’re dead.” They then left.

Police say “several” witnesses saw the men at the scene of the attack and saw Gal parked nearby.

Lt. Tim Newman said investigators learned the identity of Bouey Friday afternoon and asked Simi Valley police to watch his home.

Simi Valley police arrested Bouey as he started to drive away shortly before 7 p.m. He did not resist arrest, officers said.