Crime Scenes

Chef Who Boiled His Wife Gets Fifteen Years to Life

David Viens was denied a retrial today in an L.A. Court
David Viens was denied a retrial today in an L.A. Court Photo: Tim Pearce, Los Gatos/Flickr

“I just slowly cooked it and I ended up cooking her for four days.” With those words, Lomita chef David Viens went from mere matricidal maniac to a sick-o of national renown, confessing to police detectives in 2009 that he killed his wife, then made her corpse disappear in an industrial size pot left slow-cooking on his restaurant’s stove. This morning Viens was sentenced to fifteen years to life in prison after being found guilty of second-degree murder in September.

Long Beach Press Telegram reports that the former Thyme Contemporary Cafe owner was mumbling in an L.A. court this morning, calling his fired attorney’s decision to keep him from the stand “retarded” before getting shot down in his request for a retrial.

In a statement, Viens told the court, “I loved my wife. I didn’t cook my wife,” and insisted he could not remember making his damning confessions, admitted to police in a hosptial bed following a botched suicide attempt that left him in a wheelchair. Any signs of Dawn Viens, who disappeared at age 39, are still yet to be found despite an extensive search for her remains.

David Viens, chef who told police he boiled wife’s body, sentenced 15 years to life in prison [LBPT]

Chef Who Boiled His Wife Gets Fifteen Years to Life