VAN NUYS : Man Gets 12 Years for Stabbing Wife
A North Hollywood man was sentenced to 12 years in prison Tuesday for an attack on his estranged wife that led to an increase in security of bungalow courtrooms at Van Nuys Superior Court.
Alvin J. Wells, 34, was sentenced by Judge Michael J. Farrell for the Aug. 5, 1991, stabbing of his wife, Shirley Wells.
The victim, also 34, was stabbed six times while standing outside a bungalow courtroom where she had gone to seek a restraining order to prevent her husband from coming near her.
Farrell sentenced Wells, a former RTD bus driver, to the nine-year maximum for attempted murder plus three years for causing great bodily harm. The victim, who was not in the courtroom for the sentencing, is still recovering from the attack.
After the attack, county officials spent $242,000 to build a 10-foot-high wall around a grouping of courtrooms outside the main courthouse that are used for non-criminal matters. Members of the public must now go through metal detectors at the main courthouse entrance to get to the bungalows.
The stabbing was the second violent confrontation in one of the bungalow courtrooms. Four years ago, a gunman tried to take a deputy city attorney hostage in a municipal courtroom and was killed in a shootout in which a bailiff was also injured.
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