Man Gets Life Term in Death of His Ex-Wife

A day after saying it was hopelessly deadlocked, a San Fernando Superior Court jury Tuesday sentenced a Sylmar man to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the murder of his ex-wife.

The six-man, six-woman jury had told Judge Michael Hoff late Monday that it was deadlocked after three days of deliberating the sentencing of convicted killer William Edward Stevens, 51.

But after being asked by Hoff if further deliberation might result in a unanimous decision, the jury said it could and deliberations continued.

The jury, which had been deadlocked 7 to 5 in favor of the death penalty Monday, deliberated for little more than an hour Tuesday morning before unanimously deciding on a life sentence.

Stevens is scheduled to be formally sentenced Oct. 4.

Stevens’ ex-wife, Rufina Stevens, was killed Feb. 9, 1990. Police said she had been strangled, raped and sodomized. Her nude, mangled body was left on a railroad track near her Sun Valley home, and later struck by a freight train.

Stevens denied killing her, saying he was at home at the time of the slaying. Police alleged that Stevens used a piano wire to strangle his ex-wife while an unknown accomplice raped and sodomized her.

There was no physical evidence linking Stevens to the murder, and DNA evidence did not link him to the crime. Jurors said the key evidence that convinced them of Stevens’ guilt was the testimony of a jailhouse informant who said that Stevens admitted committing the murder.

“He just knew too damn much,” said one juror, who asked that his name not be used. “He knew that the DNA was not going to match before the police even knew.”

Defense attorneys Patrick Atkinson and Vivien McGuire said they were relieved with the sentence, but still disappointed with the guilty verdict. They said they plan to appeal the conviction, arguing that Hoff should not have allowed testimony about Stevens’ prior conviction of child abuse and sexually assaulting his two daughters.