California Chef David Viens Found Guilty Of Murdering Wife

California chef David Viens has been found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Dawn Viens. The chef told police that he boiled his wife’s body for four days to hide the evidence of her death.

David Viens showed no reaction to the verdict on Thursday, though Dawn’s sister burst out sobbing as the chef was convicted, reports The New York Daily News.

The jury heard a recorded interrogation presented by prosecutors during the trial, where Viens can be heard confessing to the crime, saying that he cooked his wife’s body after her death, until little was left of her, besides her skull.

Viens spoke to investigators from a hospital bed in March 2011 after he took a swan dive off of an 80-foot cliff in Rancho Palos Verdes. The L.A. Chef reportedly leapt off the cliff after learning he was a suspect in Dawn’s disappearance.

The trial relied on the recorded interviews with authorities where the chef acknowledged the crime in detail, saying, “I just slowly cooked it and I ended up cooking her for four days.”

Viens attended the trial in a wheelchair, still suffering the effects of his attempted suicide. He stated on the tapes that he put his wife’s body in a 55-gallon drum of boiling water, keeping it submerged with weights for four days.

TMZ notes that Viens had been in an argument with his wife, 39, the night before her death. He tied her up and put duct tape over her mouth before going to bed, but when he woke up, he found her dead, and panicked.

California chef David Viens will now face 15 years to life in prison for the murder of his wife.