Opinion ID: 2599781
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Conspiracy to Murder Gail Lebouef

Text: Gail Lebouef was the ex-wife of Jeffrey Hunter, defendant's sergeant at Fort Irwin; the two divorced in September 1989. She and Hunter remained in touch after the divorce. In December 1990, Lebouef was living in Marrero, a suburb of New Orleans, with her two daughters from her marriage to Hunter. During the marriage, Hunter had purchased life insurance policies on Lebouef and their children. He continued to pay the premiums on the policies after the divorce. He was the beneficiary of the policy for Lebouef. Lebouef was aware that Hunter was experiencing financial problems and at least one of his creditors had contacted her about Hunter's unpaid credit card bill. Hunter had also told her he was concerned about whether he could make child support payments scheduled to begin in 1991 or 1992, after he had paid off her car. Lebouef had been living with her parents but, due to disagreements with them, she accepted the invitation of Hunter's sister, Robin Castle, to stay at Castle's home over the holidays. She and one of her daughters moved into Castle's house sometime in mid-December. Hunter was aware that his ex-wife was staying with his sister. He also knew that she worked at a toy store in a shopping mall. James Winstein was a tank gunner in the same battalion as defendant. [3] In late November or early December, defendant offered to pay Winstein $1,000 if Winstein would drive him to Alabama to visit his parents. After some further conversations, defendant confided to Winstein that his real purpose was to go to New Orleans to commit a murder for someone for insurance money. He wanted Winstein to drive him to New Orleans. He told Winstein he would pay him from defendant's share of the insurance proceeds. After Winstein agreed, defendant provided more information about the murder, including showing Winstein a photograph of the victim, Gail Lebouef. He told Winstein he had obtained the photograph from Hunter. Lebouef s photograph was in a suitcase that also contained a double-edged black knife, a nine-millimeter pistol, a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol, rope and a road atlas in which he had highlighted a route to New Orleans. Defendant told Winstein that defendant planned to break into Lebouef's residence in the middle of the night and kill her, making it look like a burglary. Winstein's job would be to wait in the car and drive defendant away after he committed the murder. The two men left California on December 18, 1990, and arrived in New Orleans on December 20. Defendant had in his possession a black gym bag containing the knife, firearms, rope, a map and a change of clothes. Once they arrived in New Orleans, they went back and forth between Lebouef's parent's house and the mall where she worked, looking for her car, eventually locating it at the mall. Defendant wanted to kill Lebouef in the parking lot of the mall, but Winstein objected that this was not the agreed-upon plan. Eventually, they decided not to kill her at the mall. That evening, they returned to Lebouef's parent's house looking for her car. When they did not find it, defendant telephoned Hunter who gave him directions to Robin Castle's home. They drove by the house but, from the number of cars and people on the street, they thought there might be a party, so they decided to return later. Gail Lebouef and her oldest daughter arrived at the Castle residence at about 10:00 p.m. They occupied the back bedroom of the house. Lebouef went to bed at around midnight. About 3:00 a.m., defendant and Winstein returned to Castle's residence and parked. Defendant, dressed in dark clothing, exited the truck with the .22-caliber pistol, a knife and rope. Lebouef was awakened at about 3:30 a.m. when the bedroom light was turned on. A gun was pointed at her face by a man she saw in silhouette. He fired the gun, shooting her in the face. Although she survived, she lost four teeth and suffered damage to her jawbone and her face. Lebouef's purse, containing approximately $400 in cash, was taken from the residence. Winstein had fallen asleep in his car. At some point, he heard defendant's footsteps coming quickly toward the car and then saw him running. He jumped into the car and said, Let's go, let's go, let's go. They sped off. Defendant had a black purse in his possession from which he gave Winstein $30 or $40. As they drove north, they crossed a bridge. Defendant tossed the purse, his clothes and the gun over the side of the bridge. Defendant described to Winstein how he had entered the house and shot Lebouef. He said that the gun had jammed on him after he had fired the first round. He told Winstein he had killed Lebouef. After they returned to California, however, defendant told Winstein that she had not died and there would be no insurance payoff. Subsequently, Lebouef spontaneously identified defendant as the shooter from a photograph of him in a newspaper article about the Curtis James Dean murder ( post ) sent to her at her request by Detective Griego She also identified him as her assailant at the preliminary hearing. A .22-caliber cartridge case and a fragment of a .22-caliber projectile bullet were recovered from the bedroom where Lebouef was shot. William Blondet, the firearms examiner, testified that there was a good likelihood the bullet had been fired from a Jennings .22-caliber handgun. He also opined that the gun was a poor quality weapon and could have jammed if there was difficulty in chambering a round after the weapon had been fired once and the casing ejected.