Man Gets Life Sentence for 1987 Murder of Wife

Eleven years after he tortured and shot his wife to death so he wouldn’t lose her assets in a divorce, Guy Bouck was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for her murder.

It was a “wonderful” day, in her brother’s words, marking a hard-won victory.

“We have spent 11 years of our lives working, waiting and hoping to get to this day,” said Jack Shine, Stephanie Bouck’s brother. “We were determined that justice would prevail.” Guy Bouck, a decorated Vietnam veteran, was arrested days after Stephanie Bouck was found dead in their Canyon Country home on Jan. 3, 1987.

But the district attorney’s office declined to file murder charges, telling sheriff’s detectives they didn’t have enough evidence against him. No murder weapon was found, there were no witnesses to the crime and Bouck had an alibi.

He was set free on Jan. 7, 1987.

Afraid that his sister’s death might never be avenged, Shine, an Encino housing developer, blocked Bouck’s claims to her $180,000 estate and life insurance policy. He spent $850,000 on a civil action that eventually found that Bouck more than likely killed her.

New evidence unearthed in the probate case, including a revised time of death and statements from his then-alibi, led to Bouck’s criminal prosecution three years ago.

In November, Bouck pleaded guilty to his wife’s murder in a deal to avoid the death penalty.

He would not, however, admit the special circumstances alleged by the prosecution: lying in wait, murder for financial gain, torture and sexual assault. The allegations, if proven, would earn Bouck a life sentence.

In a trial last month, Superior Court Judge L. Jeffrey Wiatt found all but the sexual assault existed.

“A great burden has been lifted from us and we hope now to go forward with our lives with the knowledge that Guy Bouck will never leave prison alive,” Shine told the court in a prepared statement Thursday. “His fate is in God’s hands and in the hands of his fellow inmates.”

Despite his guilty plea, Guy Bouck has denied killing his wife and has said one day the murder weapon with the murderer’s fingerprints will turn up and absolve him.

“The only reason I accepted this deal is with the hope that the person responsible will be caught and convicted,” Bouck, 47, told Wiatt on Thursday. “I don’t know what to do, Your Honor. I’m innocent.”

Even his daughter doesn’t believe him.

“You killed her, no one else,” Treena Young, 24, said to Bouck in her victim’s statement to the court Thursday. “You took away the only person in my world who ever took the time to talk to me,” she said, referring to her stepmother, Stephanie Bouck. “I am disgusted by you.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeffrey C. Jonas called Bouck a “serial predator” with a history of abusing women and children--including a 4-year-old stepson from an earlier marriage, who eventually died of suspected abuse. No one was charged in the death.

Jonas said the district attorney’s office was mistaken when it did not charge Bouck with Stephanie Bouck’s murder in 1987.

In court hearings, he has repeatedly credited Shine with making the criminal prosecution possible. On Thursday, Jonas called Shine an example of “courage and tenacity and the willingness to never give up” and said that he hoped this case would “give hope and encouragement to countless other individuals that are still left hanging because murders are left unsolved.”

As Wiatt ordered Bouck imprisoned for the rest of his life without the possibility of parole, Dan Shine, the victim’s cousin, let out a deep sigh. Sitting with him were the victim’s stepmother, brother, sister-in-law and daughter.

After the hearing, relatives shared long, deep hugs in the courtroom and in the hallway.