Bruce pleads
guilty, faces 21 years
for shooting wife in Alpine home
By Neal Putnam
The Alpine Sun
EL CAJON — A sheriff’s deputy from Alpine pleaded guilty
Tuesday, Aug. 14, to voluntary manslaughter in the shooting
death of his wife with his service weapon.
A previous judge refused to allow the plea agreement on
July 13, but another judge accepted the plea by Lowell “Sam”
Bruce after the maximum sentence was increased to 21 years in
state prison.
Bruce admitted to killing Kristen Maxwell Bruce, 38 in their
Alpine home on Dec. 14, 2006. She was shot in the face and died
about an hour later.
El Cajon Superior Court Judge Allan Preckel set
sentencing for Oct. 24. He changed Bruce’s bail figure from $2.5
million to no bail, and Bruce, 40, remains in the Vista
Detention Facility.
Preckel earlier expressed reservations about accepting
the plea after Judge Herbert Exarhos rejected it after the
sentence was set at fifteen years. Exarhos had said the case
should go to trial so jurors could decide if Bruce had committed
second-degree murder or manslaughter.
Deputy District Attorney Bill Gentry said Bruce will
have to serve 85 percent of whatever term he gets because it is
a violent felony.
Gentry said there are “no deals” with the sentence
other than the lowest term would be six years and the highest
would be 21 years.
“I don’t know what the judge will do,” said Gentry.
“There are all sorts of combinations such as a term of six,
seven, nine, 10, 13, 14, 15 or 21 years,” he added.
If Bruce was convicted of second-degree murder, he
could receive 15years to life plus 25 years consecutively for
the use of a gun in a homicide. He could appeal a jury’s
verdict.
With the plea, there is no appeal, said Gentry. There
is also no need to put the couple’s four year old son on the
stand, as he is the only witness besides Bruce, who saw his
father shoot his mother in their bedroom.
“My daddy shooted my mommy with a black gun,” the four
year old told a child psychologist the next day. The boy’s words
were told in the May 14 preliminary hearing by a sheriff’s
deputy who heard them.
Gentry said the possibility of the boy having to
testify was “not the overriding factor” that resulted in the
plea. He said all aspects of the case were discussed “at every
level of the DA’s office.”
When a reporter asked Gentry if he was satisfied with
the plea to manslaughter, he replied: “It’s hard to express a
degree of satisfaction in this type of case. We’ve looked at
this carefully — It is the right result.”
Not present were the victim’s parents who were out of
town. They phoned the earlier judge, Exarhos, to say they
opposed the plea with the fifteen year maximum sentence.
“My heart goes out to them,” said Gentry.
Bruce worked as a corrections officer inside the Las
Colinas Women’s Detention Facility at the time. He was still
classified as a sheriff’s deputy, but is expected to be
terminated because of this felony conviction.
Bruce Maxwell testified earlier that he though his
daughter was kicking Bruce out to the home because all his
clothes were dumped on the floor.
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