Gal Gets 4-Year Sentence in Wayne Attack

A private investigator was sentenced to four years in state prison Friday for his role as the middleman who hired thugs to beat up Aissa Wayne, daughter of John Wayne, and her then-boyfriend.

Oded Daniel Gal, 35, pleaded guilty in June to hiring the two men who attacked Wayne and developer Roger Luby at Luby’s Newport Beach home on Oct. 3, 1988. Luby was pistol-whipped and Wayne’s head was slammed against the concrete floor.

The Century City investigator was hired by Aissa Wayne’s estranged husband, Dr. Thomas Gionis, a Pomona physician, to aid him in a child custody battle growing out of the couple’s bitter divorce. Gionis, 38, was sentenced in July to five years in prison for masterminding the attack.

Wayne and Luby were threatened at gunpoint and forced to the floor of Luby’s garage. Luby’s Achilles’ tendon was slashed, and Wayne sustained serious head injuries.

The two men who carried out the attack, Jerrel Hintergardt and Jeffrey K. Bouey, pleaded guilty to assault charges and were sentenced to eight years in prison.

Gal pleaded guilty to four felony counts: conspiracy to commit assault, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of false imprisonment. Superior Court Judge William W. Bedsworth on Friday sentenced Gal to four years imprisonment for one of the assault counts and imposed concurrent terms for the remaining counts.