Penalty Case Starts for Man Who Killed Wife

A court trial to determine the penalty against a former Army paratrooper who pleaded guilty to killing his wife got underway Monday with the victim’s relatives portraying the defendant as an avaricious and violent man.

Stephanie Bouck’s family, including her stepmother, brother and daughter, testified in the trial to determine four special allegations--lying in wait, murder for financial gain, sexual assault and torture--against Guy Dean Bouck. Bouck pleaded guilty Nov. 16 to first-degree murder after prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty against him.

Superior Court Judge L. Jeffrey Wiatt will determine whether Bouck, 47, receives the maximum sentence, life in state prison without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors charge that Bouck, a Vietnam veteran, lay in wait to kill his wife, “Stevie” Bouck, who was found shot to death in their Canyon Country home Jan. 3, 1987. He tortured and sexually assaulted her to gain an estate valued at more than $170,000, prosecutors say.

The case has been unusual because much of the evidence against Bouck emerged from a probate case to block Bouck from profiting from his wife’s murder. The legal effort was bankrolled by Jack Shine, the victim’s brother and a prominent Valley home developer.

Shine and other family members said Stephanie Bouck wanted to divorce her husband, an auto mechanic who court documents show had a history of physical abuse against women and children dating to 1971. He is now serving a 13-year sentence in state prison for raping a woman who had provided an alibi in the slaying of his wife.

Monday, witnesses said the defendant attempted to sell the couple’s Canyon Country home that had been acquired with Shine’s help, that he gave away furnishings in the residence to girlfriends and stole the dead woman’s jewelry.

He was looking for “a windfall,” said Shine of the inheritance. It was “absolute avarice and greed.”

The trial continues today.