Bouck’s Ex-Lover Tells of His Dark Side : Crime: The former Canyon County man is charged with murdering his wife for financial gain.

With 20/20 hindsight, his former alibi witness says she finds it difficult to remember what she saw in Guy Dean Bouck, the married man who swept her off her feet in 1986.

When Bouck’s wife was shot to death in January, 1987, she played the part of the dutiful girlfriend and stood by her man. She told police Bouck was with her at the time his wife was slain. She says she didn’t believe that Bouck, who fed her chicken soup when she was sick with the flu, was a killer.

But now she says: “I think I always knew it.”

On Thursday, Bouck was formally charged with murdering his wife in 1987 for her insurance money. And the woman who once provided his alibi described in an interview how she came to be a witness for the prosecution.

Bouck, 47, pleaded not guilty in San Fernando Superior Court to a grand jury indictment charging him with murder with three special circumstances that could carry the death penalty. He is accused of lying in wait in their Canyon Country home for Stephanie Bouck, torturing her, and killing her for financial gain.

Bouck hobbled into Judge Judith Meisels Ashmann’s courtroom on a single crutch Thursday. It was not known why.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeff Jonas said prosecutors have not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty. Bouck, who is currently serving a 13-year sentence for raping his former alibi witness, becomes eligible for parole in the rape case in September, 1996, the prosecutor said.

The case has several unusual aspects. In a rare ruling, a civil judge has already dealt with the issue of whether Bouck killed his wife.

In 1990, following what one lawyer described as the civil court equivalent of a murder trial, a probate judge ruled that Bouck probably killed his wife and therefore should not inherit anything from her.

Bouck was seeking 80% of her $100,000 life insurance policy, her half of their house in Canyon Country and a money-market fund--a move that her family vigorously resisted.

Two weeks before the trial began, he raped the girlfriend who had previously provided his alibi that he was with her that night. She eventually testified for the family that he had not spent the entire time with her. Her journal--complete with entries describing her ambivalent feelings over whether Bouck had killed his wife--was a key piece of evidence in that case.

The civil case also revealed Bouck’s long involvement with violence against women and children. According to court records, in 1971 he was investigated for, but not charged with, the death of his 4-year-old stepson in Colorado.

Five years later, he was charged with abusing another child, the 2-year-old daughter of a girlfriend. He was placed on probation and allowed to change his plea to not guilty when he successfully completed the terms of probation.

In the civil case, police testified that he was a prime suspect in his wife’s slaying.

With more than five years to reflect on her relationship with Bouck, his former alibi witness says he deceived her from the day they met. He lied about his marital status. He set her up as his alibi. And in January, 1990, he tied her up, bit her and raped her, she said. He was convicted of the rape later that year--the same year that the probate court ruled he had probably killed his wife.

Between the time of the killing and the rape, Bouck also said and did unspeakable things to her, memories of which she repressed for years, the woman said. Although the details remain shrouded in grand jury secrecy, Jonas said those memories are expected to be a key part of the prosecution’s case.

The witness greatly resembles Stephanie Bouck. She is petite, with short hair and a polished, professional style. She admits that Bouck--who has a ponytail, shaggy beard and tattoos on his forearms--is not the sort of man she’d normally find attractive.

She says she believes Bouck preyed on women’s vulnerabilities. Bouck was husband No. 4 for Stephanie, an accountant known as “Stevie,” and Stephanie was afraid of the embarrassment another failed marriage would cause, the former girlfriend said.

She said she herself was divorced after 18 years of marriage when her husband told her he never loved her. Nearly two years later, in September, 1986, she met Bouck, who immediately impressed her as a kind, caring man.

“He was always laughing. You never saw any anger. He was always very happy,” she said. By January, 1987, he’d changed, she said. “There’s a side to him no one should have to endure,” she said.

Soon after Stephanie Bouck’s slaying, she said, he told her during a quarrel: “I never cared about you. All you are is an alibi.”

Still, she stayed with him. “I didn’t want to think I was incapable of being loved by somebody,” she said, tears welling in her eyes.

“You want to know what’s really, really scary? Give me the exact same set of circumstances and I would do the same exact thing. What I knew and what I believed weren’t the same thing. I knew it. I just didn’t want to believe it.”

Bouck returns to court March 22 for further hearings.