BREAKING NEWS: Lomita Chef David Robert Viens convicted of cooking dead wife

LOS ANGELES – The Lomita chef who told detectives he cooked his dead wife for four days was found guilty today of second-degree murder, the District Attorney’s office announced.

A jury of six women and six men deliberated about five hours before finding David Robert Viens, 49, guilty of killing his 39-year-old wife, Dawn Marie Viens, whose body remains missing. She was last seen alive on Oct. 18, 2009.

Deputy District Attorney Deborah Brazil with the Major Crimes Division prosecuted the case.

In two separate interviews with Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department detectives that were played for jurors, Viens described how he bound and gagged his wife’s mouth, feet and hands with duct tape so he could sleep. He found her lifeless four hours later.

He told detectives he placed her body in a 55-gallon drum filled with water and left her to cook for four days in his Lomita restaurant, Thyme Contemporary Café.

Viens was brought to court in a wheelchair each day after he jumped 80 feet off a Rancho Palos Verdes cliff on Feb. 23, 2011, after being confronted by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies.

He returns to court Nov. 27 for sentencing before Superior Court Judge Rand S. Rubin. He’s facing 15 years to life in state prison.