Los Angeles News
Chef Boils Wife: Delayed Sentencing
By Katherine Noland
Nov 27, 2012 - 3:04:30 PM

LOS ANGELES—Sentencing for the Lomita chef David Viens, who was convicted of murdering his wife and boiling her remains, has been delayed after Viens fired his attorney on Tuesday, November 27.

David Vien.

Dawn Viens was last seen in October 2009. A friend took notice of her disappearance after Viens did not show up to accompany her at a doctor's appointment that she said she would come to. After several close friends confronted her husband about her whereabouts, he claimed she left him after he tried telling her to go to a drug rehabilitation center.

They filed a missing persons report anyway, and shortly after received from Dawn's cell phone, stating that she was fine and would get a hold of them soon. Friends found this odd, as Dawn seldom used text messaging and had even misspelled her own nickname.

As the case prevailed, the 49-year-old chef admitted to tying up his wife, and taping her mouth shut in their bed. He said they had both taken cocaine, and she would not stop bothering him as he tried to sleep. He claimed that in order to prevent her from leaving the house and recklessly driving under the influence, he tied her body to the bed only to find her dead in the morning.

Viens then proceeded to cook her remains, putting parts of her body in garbage bags and dumping the rest down a grease pit in their family-owned restaurant, Thyme Contemporary Café where Dawn worked as a hostess. Viens told detectives that the only remains he has not disposed of are his wife’s skull and jaw, which he claims to have hidden at his mother’s house. Police searched the home, and were unable to find anything. Viens' daughter testified to this story, claiming that her father told her nobody would find her stepmother’s body.

The truth started to unravel after a newspaper’s headline claimed Viens as a person of interest for homicide. Viens broke down in tears and confessed everything to his girlfriend. Soon after, his daughter called to tell him she had talked to police.

Viens the drove his girlfriend toward Ranch Palos Verdas at 80 mph toward a cliff where he stopped and got out, running toward the edge to jump despite the efforts of police and his girlfriend to stop him. Jumping feet first, Vienws was rescued and did not suffer from head injurites. He did, however, shatter his leg, pelvis, and other bones and remained in the hospital for weeks where he confessed everything to detectives

Viens was convicted of second degree murder in September, and will face sentencing in February at the Superior Court in downtown Los Angeles where he could spend between 15 years to life in prison. The reason for firing his attorney, Fred McCurry, remains unknown.