Wife Slayer Who Threatened to Kill 54 More People Found Sane : Sanity trial: Chemical engineer faces possible life in prison without parole. Defense says it will appeal.

A Superior Court jury took only about four hours Thursday to decide that David Lee Schoenecker, who threatened to hunt down and kill more than 50 people, was sane the night he shot his wife to death in their Anaheim Hills home.

Schoenecker, 50, faces a possible sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced Oct. 4 by Judge Robert Fitzgerald.

The jury began deliberating on the sanity phase of the trial shortly after 11 a.m., reaching its verdict about 3 p.m.

On Wednesday, the same jury found the unemployed chemical engineer guilty of first-degree murder for killing his wife, Gail Mae, on May 6, 1989, shortly after the couple returned from dinner.

Jurors also found that a special circumstances allegation that the murder was committed while “lying in wait” was true.

Defense attorneys said Thursday that they planned to ask for a new trial and argue at the sentencing hearing that the special circumstance finding was inappropriate in Schoenecker’s conviction.

Co-counsel Carol E. Lavacot of the public defender’s office said that if the defense is successful in convincing the judge, Schoenecker could receive 25 years to life, instead of the mandatory life without parole.

Even if Schoenecker receives the lesser sentence, Lavacot said, he would not be eligible for parole for at least 18 years.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher J. Evans said he was “naturally pleased” with Thursday’s verdict.

“It was a real serious crime, and this is the appropriate verdict,” Evans said. “I’m pleased that the jury agreed with us.”

Public Defender Ronald Y. Butler was Schoenecker’s lead attorney. It was the first defense trial for Butler in the 10 years since he took over as head of the Orange County public defender’s office.

Butler had argued during the guilt phase of the trial that Schoenecker suffered from a major mental disorder that caused obsessive, compulsive psychosis and gross impairment of his moods and rationale.

His client, he said, began seeing visions of himself violently paying back the people he believed had harmed him and that the only way to stop the visions was by acting them out.

Schoenecker compiled a “hit list” of 54 people he intended to kill. Most of them lived in the Milwaukee, Wis., area, where the Schoeneckers had lived most of their married life. However, none of those people were harmed.

Defense attorneys said Schoenecker told a psychiatrist that he made the decision to kill his wife because he did not want to leave her behind without him and to face the financial problems that he had incurred.

Prosecutors, however, believe that Schoenecker might have killed his wife either because she knew too much about his plans to kill the others or because he blamed her for his financial troubles.

It was Schoenecker’s signed confession sent to the Orange County Register that led to the discovery of his wife’s body in their Anaheim Hills home. Investigators also found an envelope marked “The List” that included the names of the 54 intended victims.

Montana authorities captured Schoenecker several days after he mailed his confession letter to the newspaper. The letter bore a Montana postmark.

Schoenecker was equipped with snow gear for cross-country hiking when he was arrested.

Times staff writer Jim Newton contributed to this report.