Killer of 2 Friends Gets Maximum Term : Murder: Anaheim Hills youth who shot classmates in similar circumstances four years apart is sentenced to 18 years to life for the second incident.

An Anaheim Hills teen-ager, who admitted murdering a classmate four years after fatally shooting another school friend under eerily similar circumstances, was sentenced Friday to 18 years to life in prison.

After listening to emotional statements from the fathers of the two victims, Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald gave Richard H. Bourassa Jr. the maximum punishment for second-degree murder, saying the youth “is an enormously dangerous individual (who) if let out of prison would probably kill again.”

Bourassa, 18, who was given an additional three years for using a firearm, stared down at the defense table during most of the hearing and made no comment to the court.

His lawyer said later that an appeal is possible but that it is “too early to tell.”

Last May, Bourassa pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the May 24, 1990, shooting death of his 17-year-old friend, Christian Wiedepuhl. The shooting occurred in the same room of Bourassa’s house, at the same hour of day, four years after he shot and killed another friend, 13-year-old Jeffrey Bush. Police ruled that the first shooting was an accident.

After both shootings, Bourassa told police that he and the victims were handling his stepfather’s loaded firearms when the weapon in his hand accidentally discharged. That explanation, however, did not satisfy prosecutors the second time police received a 911 call from Bourassa saying a boy was lying in a pool of blood in his family’s second-floor den.

When Christian died, prosecutors accused Bourassa of shooting his friend in the head while acting out a form of “reverse” Russian roulette. Bourassa, they said, took a bullet out of his stepfather’s .38-caliber handgun, pointed the weapon at Christian and pulled the trigger.

But because Bourassa is dyslexic, they said, he may have miscalculated the chamber’s rotation and fired a live round when he thought he would hit the empty chamber.

“Christian Wiedepuhl was an absolute, unknowing, undeserving, unparticipating victim in this case,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Kathi Harper told the judge Friday. “He was . . . playing with (Bourassa’s stepfather’s) ham radio equipment when Richard Bourassa walked in, pointed a gun at him and shot him in the head.”

Bourassa’s attorney, Edward W. Hall, asked the judge for leniency and a California Youth Authority sentence for his client without time at a state prison.

The judge ordered Bourassa housed at the California Youth Authority until his 25th birthday and then sent to state prison to fulfill the remainder of his sentence.

After the hearing Friday, the fathers of the two victims said that while the sentence may send a message, it nevertheless does little to ease their pain.

“Nothing will bring back Christian’s life,” Wiedepuhl said. “My family is broken. Our lives are ruined.”

Dale Bush, Jeffrey’s father, ruefully agreed, saying he does not believe that his son’s death was an accident, even though Bourassa has never been charged with a crime for that shooting.

“This really doesn’t help that much,” Bush said. “It might hopefully sent a message to other kids. I wish the judge would have been stronger. You use a gun you’re going to go to jail for life. . . . I wish the sentence would have been tougher. He killed two boys.”