When jurors found Michael Jace guilty of killing his wife in front of the couple’s two young sons, the only visible emotion the TV actor showed was to bite his lip.
Family members of the victim are hoping Jace shows something more, some sign of regret or sadness, on Friday, when he’s set to be sentenced for second-degree murder at a downtown Los Angeles court in what’s expected to be an emotional hearing.
Jace, who played a police officer on the FX series “The Shield,” will be able to address the judge before he’s sentenced, as will the family of his slain wife, April Jace. He faces between 40 years and life in prison.
Jace, 53, admits to fatally shooting his wife in May 2014, once in the back and twice in the legs.
Soon after the attack, Jace told detectives that he had retrieved the gun to kill himself but couldn’t go through with it. Instead, he planned to shoot his wife, an avid runner, in the leg so she would feel pain, Jace said in a recorded interview.
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Jace did not testify during his trial. His attorney, Jamon Hicks, told jurors that Jace shot his wife in the heat of passion, that he “snapped.”
Prosecutor Tannaz Mokayef told jurors that Jace fired a revolver that required him to pull a heavy trigger several times.
“I don’t know how you can shoot somebody three times and call it an accident,” she said.
She cited testimony from the couple’s 10-year-old son, who told jurors that he heard his father say, “‘If you like running, then run to heaven,'” before firing the second time.
“Who is going to argue that this was not an intent to kill?” Mokayef said.
Mokayef said the actor was upset that his wife wanted a divorce and believed she was having an affair, although no evidence was presented during the trial that she was cheating.
She said he taunted her after first shooting her in the back, and then shot her in the legs.
After Jace was found guilty last week, an adult son of April Jace said he was hoping the actor will show his feelings at his sentencing.
“I’d just like to see the sadness on his face,” Savoy Brown said, adding that when Jace appears emotionless, it makes him wonder: “How can you go that far? How can you say those words? How can you do that?”
April Jace, 40, was a financial aid counselor at Biola University. She was married to Michael Jace for nine years and they had two sons, who were 8 and 5 at the time of her death.
Michael Jace had small roles in films such as “Planet of the Apes,” ”Boogie Nights” and “Forrest Gump.”
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