Reporter’s Killer Is Sentenced to Life

The convicted killer of Daily Californian reporter Steve Petix was sentenced Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Sixteen years was added to the sentence of David Weeding, 40, of Santee, for four prior rape convictions in Texas in 1975 and 1976.

Petix, 31, was stabbed five times as he came to the aid of his wife, Vickie Petix, 24, while Weeding tried to rape her in the couple’s El Cajon apartment on May 20, 1988.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, but a San Diego Superior Court jury recommended Dec. 11 that Weeding be given a life sentence without parole.

“My understanding is that he will not be a free man again, and that’s good enough for me,” Vickie Petix said after the sentencing by Superior Court Judge Wayne Peterson.

“Nothing will bring Steve back.”

Weeding turned in a handwritten appeal of his first-degree murder conviction.

Steve Petix’s brother, Mark Petix, a newspaper reporter in Riverside, said the sentencing marks “hopefully the final chapter.”

Vickie Petix testified that Weeding appeared at her door posing as a repairman and asked to check for plumbing leaks. She said she let him in because she had a leaking pipe in her bedroom. Once inside, Weeding attacked her at knifepoint. During the attack, Steve Petix came home for lunch from his job at the El Cajon newspaper. Vickie Petix said she saw Weeding lunge toward her husband as she fled the apartment.

Weeding did not testify at his trial or at his sentencing.

After the sentencing, Weeding’s attorney, Robert Bourne, said, “Life without parole means life without parole.”