Leniency Denied in Manslaughter Case : Courts: Judge sentences defendant to four years in the 1983 bludgeoning death of an Irvine tire store owner in his home.

A month after his manslaughter conviction in the 1983 beating death of an Irvine tire store owner, Scott Stockwell’s wish for freedom by Christmas was dashed Thursday when a judge denied his plea for leniency.

Orange County Superior Court Judge James K. Turner sentenced Stockwell to four years in state prison--meaning Stockwell will be released in about two months because he has already served most of the time in jail awaiting trial.

Stockwell, 34, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for killing Boyd William Finkel with a rubber mallet on Oct. 15, 1983. Stockwell said he was trying to escape after Finkel drugged and sexually assaulted him. Prosecutors, who disbelieved Stockwell’s account, charged him with first-degree murder. Conviction on that charge could have meant up to 25 years to life in prison.

Stockwell’s lawyer, Jon M. Alexander, sought the most lenient sentence for manslaughter, which would have allowed Stockwell to go free immediately based on the jail time served.

Alexander said Stockwell’s two years in Orange County Jail were punishment enough. The attorney sought to portray the 39-year-old Finkel as a sexual deviate who preyed on male hitchhikers such as Stockwell and deserved what he got.

“It is tragic that a life was lost here,” Alexander said during the sentencing hearing. Finkel “was a predator going up and down the highways. He was the reason this whole thing started.”

But the judge sided with the prosecutor in imposing a longer sentence, citing the severity of the bludgeoning.

“It seems to the court that even though it was a rubber mallet, that this type of a beating was not necessary to effect an escape,” Turner said.

It took homicide investigators a decade to catch Stockwell. At the time of his 1993 arrest in Wisconsin, Stockwell worked in a foundry, was married to a nursing student and had a daughter. Megan Stockwell did not attend the hearing but sought an early release for her husband. She now lives in Alabama with their 6-year-old daughter.

Stockwell testified at trial that he was hitchhiking from Ventura County to San Diego when Finkel picked him up. Stockwell said it was late and he decided to spend the night at Finkel’s home in Irvine. Stockwell said Finkel gave him strong cocktails possibly spiked with drugs and, with the help of another man, held him down and sexually assaulted him in the bedroom. The second man, who was not identified, left later.

Stockwell testified that when he tried to leave, Finkel blocked the door and chased him into the garage. The two struggled briefly and, Stockwell said, he grabbed the mallet and began swinging. Stockwell said he put Finkel’s body in the trunk of a Cadillac parked in the garage and did not call police because he feared murder charges. The body was discovered a week later.

Stockwell fled to Montana and several years later moved to Wisconsin. Police found him after a new computerized fingerprint database in Montana yielded a match.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Debora Lynn Lloyd discounted Stockwell’s account of the alleged sexual assault as inconsistent and full of lies. She said Thursday that Stockwell had a violent past and may have visited Finkel before the night of the killing.

“We had a brutal killing here,” Lloyd said.