Dawn Viens murder: Chef convicted of murdering his spouse and boiling her body pleads for new trial
'I loved my wife. I didn't cook my wife:' Chef convicted of murdering his spouse and boiling her body pleads for new trial before being sentenced to 15 years to life
- David Viens, 49, convicted in September of murdering his wife Dawn in Los Angeles
- Viens admitted he stuffed wife's body in pot and 'just slowly cooked it' until only the skull remained - it has never been found
- Viens made rambling 45-minute speech asking for a new trial
- Claimed that he does not remember making damning confessions
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A California chef who told police he cooked his wife's body in boiling water has been sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for second-degree murder.
David Viens, 49, gave a rambling, 45-minute speech during Friday's sentencing in Los Angeles, saying the story he told police about boiling his wife Dawn’s remains was a lie.
‘I loved my wife. I didn’t cook my wife,’ Viens told the judge in a failed bid to get a new trial.
Day of reckoning: David Viens, a chef who told police he cooked his wife's body in boiling water, was sentenced in Los Angeles to 15 years to life in prison for second-degree murder in March 2012
Last-ditch effort: Viens delivered a rambling 45-minute speech in a failed attempt to get a new trial, telling the court that he loved his wife and did not cook her
Viens said that he did not remember making the confessions, including one that took place after he underwent 12 hours of surgery following his plunge, which he said was accidental.
The convicted killer also said that his former attorney should have presented more evidence about his medical condition and allowed him to testify.
In her impact statement Friday, Dawn's sister, Dayna Papin, said that having her sibling’s killer sentenced to 15 years to live will not bring her closure, The Press-Telegram reported.
'As I sat here the last hour listening, I learned I will not have any peace for a very long time,' Papin said. 'I think he's made it pretty clear to all of us he is going to continue to fight for his freedom.'
In response, Viens said: 'Nobody loved Dawn Marie Viens more than I did, or misses her more. I lied to police out of fear. My life's been a mess ever since. I'm sorry Dayna.'
The 49-year-old man was convicted in September of killing 39-year-old Dawn Viens in 2009. Her body was never found.
In a recorded interrogation presented at trial, Viens said he cooked her body for four days to get rid of evidence.
Authorities said he leaped off a cliff after learning he was a suspect in her disappearance. The man survived the fall, but sustained serious injuries that landed him in a wheelchair.
In a sentencing memo cited by the Los Angeles Times, prosecutors called the former chef 'A liar and a manipulator,' adding that he had a history of drug-related crime before the 2009 murder.
After being convicted on a drug charge in 2003, Viens fled to Mexico instead of serving a four-month sentence in Vermont, according to court documents. He eventually gave himself up, only to be found guilty of a federal marijuana charge two years later.
On his own: Chef David Viens, pictured right, fired his lawyer Fred McCurry (left) in a Los Angeles court today as he awaits sentencing for the murder of his wife in 2009
Viens was convicted of second-degree murder in September. He had confessed to accidentally killing her and then cooking her body for four days in an effort to cover up his crime.
Following his conviction, Viens told his lawyer that his services were no longer required and that he would represent himself at his sentencing.
The convicted killer, who had pleaded not guilty, tried to get rid of his attorney earlier in the trial but Judge Rand S. Rubin refused to allow the dismissal.
During the trial, those who knew the Vienses testified that their marriage had been in trouble, with Dawn telling one of her friends her husband had choked her and David telling another friend he wanted to 'kill that bitch' because he suspected her of stealing $300 from the restaurant.
Following Dawn Viens' disappearance, her husband told people that his wife had left him. In an attempt to conceal the truth, prosecutors said the chef sent fake text messages from his dead wife's phone to her friends.
But the victim’s sister was not convinced and filed a missing persons report in November 2009.
In February 2011, when Mr Viens learned that he has become a suspect in his wife's disappearance, he attempted to end his life by leaping off a cliff.
During an interrogation, Viens told police how on the day of the killing, which took place in mid-October 2009, he duct-taped his wife's mouth, hands and feet like he had done twice before in order to stop her from 'driving around wasted, whacked out on coke and drinking.'
Then the husband dozed off. When he woke up hours later, Vines panicked because Dawn was dead.
According to his former attorney, Viens thought that no one would believe him that the death was accidental, and so the professional cook packed his wife's body into a Dumpster at his restaurant.
But during a second interrogation, the chef offered a much more gruesome version of events, detailing how he got rid of his wife's 105-pound body.
'He treated her like a piece of meat': The couple's friend Karen Patterson told reporters justice had been done when Viens was convicted in September
‘I cooked her four days, I let her cool, I strained it out,’ he said.
The rest of Dawn’s remains were dumped in the trash. Though Viens told authorities that he hid his wife’s skull in his mother’s attic, he added that he was ‘confused … because of these dreams and stuff I’ve had.’
In August 2010, homicide detectives took over the investigation after finding blood splatter inside Dawn and David Viens' former home.
Viens was critically injured when he leaped from a 80-ft cliff in March 2011 near Rancho Palos Verdes as police closed in on him for the crime.
A juror said after the verdict in September that it was that apparent suicide attempt which convinced him of Viens' guilt, adding: 'My opinion was if he was innocent, he wouldn't jump off a cliff.'
During the trial, prosecutors relied on gruesome interrogation tapes in which Viens described how he shoved Dawn's body in a 55-gallon drum of boiling water and cooked it until little but her skull was left.
The chef said in the recordings that he mixed what remained of his wife after she was boiled up with other waste and then dumped some of it in a grease pit at his restaurant and put the rest in the trash.
He said he stashed his wife's skull in his mother's attic in Torrance, California.
'For some reason I just got violent': David Viens pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife Dawn - who disappeared in October 2009
Body search: Police excavated the Thyme Contemporary Cafe but found no trace of Dawn Viens
His then-defense attorney Fred McCurry said the evidence didn't support a first-degree murder conviction against his client, which requires proof of premeditation.
A search of Viens' mother's house turned up nothing, nor did an excavation of his restaurant Thyme Contemporary Cafe in Lomita, Los Angeles.
On the recording played in court, sheriff's Sgt. Richard Garcia asked Viens what happened on October 18, 2009, the night his wife disappeared.
'For some reason I just got violent,' said Viens.
Viens originally claimed his wife ran away to the mountains from their restaurant after an argument over whether she should go for drug rehabilitation.
But authorities were suspicious because of ‘inconsistent statements’ he gave and the fact she left behind her wallet, mobile phone and other personal belongings.
His new girlfriend, 23-year-old waitress Kathy Galvan, then took over Mrs Viens’s job and moved into her home, before he was seen throwing out his wife’s belongings into a dustbin behind his restaurant, police said.
On trial: David Viens told investigators they couldn't find his wife's body because he had cooked it for four days in boiling water until little was left but her skull
Suicide bid? The cliffs near the Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes in California. Viens jumped over cliffs in the area as he was being chased by police, falling 80ft, but 'amazingly' survived
Police upgraded the case from a missing person case to a homicide after they found blood inside Viens apartment.
They had been looking for him when they saw the suspect and Kathy Galvan in his car on a road near the coastline by Point Vicente Interpretive Center near Rancho Palos Verdes.
He sped off to a lighthouse car park, jumped out and began grappling with Ms Galvan, who tried to stop him from jumpinjg, before officers tried to intervene. But Viens broke free and seemed to purposely leap off the cliff to the beach below.
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