Judge Sentences Bigamist to 240 Days in Jail

A convicted bigamist’s lawyer pleaded for leniency Thursday by arguing that her Simi Valley client was so slow mentally, he did not realize he was married to three women at the same time.

But Municipal Judge Bruce A. Clark was not swayed by the low-IQ defense.

He sentenced Lloyd Wetzel to 240 days in County Jail followed by five years’ probation and ordered the 29-year-old security guard to dissolve his unlawful second and third marriages.

During the sentencing, Wetzel’s third wife, Sandra Lemich, told Clark that Wetzel had betrayed her emotionally and ruined her financially, scamming her out of more than $20,000.

“I feel like I have been raped and victimized, like a dirty old rag thrown into the trash,” she told the judge. “There is no remorse for what he did to me.”

Referring to the defense theory, Lemich said: “They are blaming all this on his mental ability, but he was smart enough to bilk me out of all my time, my money, my heart.”

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Wearing a dark suit, Wetzel sat glumly at the defense table and chatted with his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Christina Briles, as his third wife made her statement. He must report to the county’s main jail Jan. 9 to begin serving his sentence.

Outside the courtroom, Lemich smiled and said she was pleased with Clark’s ruling, though she wanted to see him taken into custody immediately.

“I am kind of glad this is all over,” the Moorpark waitress said.

Wetzel and Lemich met at the restaurant where she works. During a courtship of several months, she said she fell in love with the dark-haired man, who is 17 years younger than her.

Married less than a year, Lemich found out Wetzel had never divorced his first or second wives and decided to press charges.

Wetzel married Benita Hoffman of Newbury Park in 1987. She later filed a temporary restraining order against him, claiming domestic abuse, according to court records.

In 1990, he married Guadalupe Diaz of Sylmar. Authorities said Wetzel was living with both Hoffman and Diaz at the same time without either woman knowing of the other. But Diaz does not want to file bigamy charges.

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When Lemich challenged Wetzel about the previous marriages, she said he threatened to kill her.

During court proceedings, prosecutors agreed to dismiss a second charge of dissuading a witness if Wetzel admitted to the bigamy. Last month, he pleaded guilty to a single bigamy charge.

At the sentencing, Wetzel’s attorney argued that the bigamy occurred in part because of a lingering mental disorder.

Briles said Wetzel was under the impression that he had an annulment from his second marriage when he wed Lemich in a Simi Valley church this year.

“He is sort of stuck with the limits he has,” she said of his mental capabilities. “Unfortunately, he is limited by his intelligence.”

Briles added that her client, who suffers from “chronic feelings of inferiority,” is “sorry for what he has done.”

But Lemich doesn’t buy that argument. She plans to appear on a TV talk show to tell other women about her husband.

“He has no remorse--nothing,” she said. “All the women this airs to will know his face and be on the lookout.”