Wayne Witness: Plan Didn’t Call for Violence

SANTA ANA —  One of the men involved in the attack on John Wayne’s daughter and her then-boyfriend two years ago testified Thursday that he did not know that his partner was going to use a knife on Luby and smash Aissa Wayne’s face into a concrete floor.

“We were only supposed to go in there and scare her,” Jeffrey K. Bouey said. “Our plan did not call for any violence.”

He was the final key witness for the prosecution at the trial of Dr. Thomas A. Gionis, 37, accused of ordering the Oct. 3, 1988, assault on Roger W. Luby and Wayne, who is his ex-wife.

Bouey also steadfastly insisted that he was told by the man who hired him that the mission was on orders from “the woman’s husband.” He and Jerrel Hintergardt, 38, were hired by private detective Dan Gal, Bouey testified.

Bouey, 38, said he never heard Gionis’ name and did not know the victim by name or that she was the daughter of John Wayne. Gionis, 37, is charged with eight felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy, false imprisonment and burglary.

Wayne, 34, and Luby, 52, were attacked after they returned to Luby’s Newport Beach estate after a workout at a health club. The two assailants, armed with loaded guns, slipped onto the grounds when the gate to the property opened for Wayne’s car.

Prosecutors contend Gionis wanted Wayne “roughed up” because he was losing a custody battle over their daughter, who was nearly 2 at the time. Since Gionis’ arrest last year in the incident, Wayne has had primary custody of the little girl.

Bouey’s testimony is critical to the prosecution’s case, primarily because he claims he saw Gal on the car telephone with “the client” shortly before the assault. Phone records show Gal, 32, made two calls then to Gionis’ car phone, and a third to Gionis’ house.

Gionis’ defense attorney, John D. Barnett, contends that the doctor never took any of those calls.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher J. Evans rested his case after just four days of testimony, without placing Gal on the witness stand.

Hintergardt, convicted at a separate trial, is already serving an eight-year prison sentence for his role in the assault. Gal and Bouey are awaiting trial. Bouey is expected to plea-bargain in exchange for his cooperation with authorities.

Bouey took the witness stand late in the day Wednesday. Defense attorney Barnett began his cross-examination with an aside to him:

“Mr. Bouey, you seem like a nice enough fellow, how’d you get mixed up in something like this?”

But by the end of his cross-examination Thursday, Barnett had Bouey glaring at him and accusing him of grandstanding.

Bouey testified that he went along with the Gal-Hintergardt plan because he was going to be paid $1,500--he eventually got $2,000.

Barnett: “For $1,500, you drove down to Newport Beach and endangered the lives of two people you didn’t even know? For $1,500?”

Bouey: “That’s right. I needed the money for a career change.”

Bouey said he was an accountant but hated the work and wanted to set up some kind of business of his own. He said Hintergardt wanted to get into a new business too.

A hearing on Barnett’s motion that the case against Gionis be dismissed is scheduled for this afternoon. Unless Superior Court Judge Theodore E. Millard grants the motion, the defense will begin its case Monday.