O.C. Teen Pleads Guilty in Death of 2nd Classmate

In an unexpected move, an Anaheim Hills teen-ager who shot a friend to death five years ago pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder for killing another classmate under eerily similar circumstances.

“This caught me as a complete surprise,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Kathi Harper after Richard H. Bourassa Jr., 18, entered his guilty plea for the May 24, 1990, death of 17-year-old Christian Wiedepuhl.

Defense attorney Edward W. Hall said, he, too, was shocked by his client’s desire to change his plea just as the case was going to trial. Jury selection was to have begun Monday.

“I’m flabbergasted, quite honestly,” Hall said. “The worst-case scenario, had we gone to trial, I felt, would have been a second-degree (murder) conviction.”

Bourassa, who was offered no special sentencing deals, according to both attorneys, faces a maximum 15 years to life in prison for second-degree murder, plus another possible five years for using a firearm in the crime.

“You do appreciate that it’s time to stop shooting people, is that correct?” asked Superior Court Judge Robert Fitzgerald as he accepted Bourassa’s plea.

“Yes,” said Bourassa, who was weeping.

Prosecutors had accused Bourassa of shooting Christian in the head while acting out a form of Russian roulette. In his plea, however, Bourassa did not say how the shooting occurred, stating only that he knowingly pointed a loaded .38-caliber handgun at his friend and pulled the trigger.

That shooting was eerily similar to the fatal gunplay involving Jeffrey A. Bush, 13, of Anaheim Hills on Sept. 12, 1986. According to police, Bourassa, then 13, and Jeffrey were playing with a 12-gauge shotgun and a .22-caliber rifle at Bourassa’s house. The shotgun Bourassa was holding fired, mortally wounding Jeffrey in the chest and head, police said. That shooting was ruled an accident.

Both shootings occurred shortly after 4 p.m. in the family den at Bourassa’s house.

Bourassa will undergo a psychological examination at the California Youth Authority to determine whether he should be sentenced to a youth facility, state prison or a combination of both. A sentencing hearing was set for June 28.

Christa Wiedepuhl, Christian’s mother, said that she was glad she and her family would be spared the ordeal of a trial.

“I’m really shocked; it sure is a turnaround,” she said after hearing that Bourassa had pleaded guilty. “In a way, I’m glad that it went this way and we don’t have to go through this trial business.”

“I’m sure (Bourassa) realizes that this was not a game and had serious consequences,” she said, adding that the upcoming anniversary of her son’s death is going to be hard to deal with. “His birthday was just April 20 and that was a real bad day. . . . I can’t do anything about it but take one day at a time.”

Hall said that Bourassa still contends that it was Christian who retrieved the revolver from the bedroom of Bourassa’s parents. Christian was pointing the gun around when Bourassa took it away from him, the defendant insists.

Harper said that Bourassa took a bullet out of the gun to play a “reverse Russian roulette.” But because he is dyslexic, he may have miscalculated the chamber’s rotation and fired a live round when he thought he would hit the empty chamber.

Bourassa still claims that he doesn’t know how one of the bullets was removed from the gun, his attorney said.

Harper, however, said, “I don’t think Christian was playing. It (the shooting) was not an accident. . . . (Bourassa) knew at the time he was pointing a loaded gun that the probability of (Christian’s) death occurring was very high.”

Hall said the his client’s pulling the trigger was “a stupid mistake.”

A factor in Bourassa’s decision to plead guilty, Hall said, was his “consideration of what other people would have to go through in a trial, i.e., Christian’s family and his own family. . . . He was very adamant in his position to settle the case.”

In addition, Hall said, Friday’s pretrial ruling by Fitzgerald to allow jurors to hear about the first fatal shooting also played a part in Bourassa’s guilty plea.

Bourassa made his decision to plead guilty prior to jury selection Monday. Hall asked the court for a brief delay while he conferred with his client. A few minutes later, Bourassa’s mother and stepfather, Nancy and Thomas Baldwin, were allowed to talk to him about his decision.

“It was very rough on them,” Hall said. “There was a surprise factor, a disappointment factor and probably a relief factor as well.”

Bourassa’s parents and Christian’s father, Richard Wiedepuhl, often attended the emotionally charged preliminary hearing, which had drawn national attention.

“This has been a very interesting case,” prosecutor Harper said. “This is a tragedy for the Baldwin family, the Wiedepuhl family and the Bush family.”

Richard Wiedepuhl said he learned about Bourassa’s plea while listening to his car radio.

“It’s just like a miracle, I can’t believe it,” he said. “I was worried that he was going to wiggle out of it.”

“The length of the sentence is secondary,” he said. “The message (of his plea) is that justice was served. At least he won’t have a chance to kill again for quite a while.”

Harper said that Wiedepuhl had been very supportive of her throughout the pretrial hearings.

“Mr. Wiedepuhl has a very sincere desire to get a message out. . . . If anything good can come out of this, maybe it will make people think harder about firearm safety,” she said.

The Baldwins declined comment, and the Bushes could not be reached.

NEXT STEP

Before Richard H. Bourassa Jr. is sentenced for second-degree murder, the county’s Probation Department will put together a sentencing report, interviewing him, his parents, the victim’s family and others. The report will be sent to the sentencing judge on June 28. At that time, Bourassa--because the crime was committed when he was still a juvenile--will be handed over to the California Youth Authority for several months for a battery of psychological diagnostic tests. At the conclusion of the examination, a panel at the CYA will recommend to the judge that Bourassa be sentenced to either a CYA facility, state prison or a combination of both.