May 20, 2014

"Actor Michael Jace called police himself to report... 'I shot my wife'...."

"... the actor stayed on the phone, as instructed, until LAPD arrived and found his 40-year-old wife, April Jace dead."
Jace's 2 kids witnessed him allegedly shooting and killing their mom. The kids — both under 10 — were extremely upset and taken to the police station. We're told cops are angry it took Children's Services 4 hours to get to the station and take the kids to the home of a family member where they could be comforted.

41 comments:

Anonymous said...

Crazy Street Corner Guy Off His Meds Says:

Harvey Keitel says that any Man that shoots a Woman is inherently weak. If a Woman truly has to Die for Good Reasons a True Man uses his hands, it is a sign of chivalry and respect. Harvey says you must look the woman in the eye the entire time, it is what a True man does, only a coward chokes a woman from behind. Sometimes it is best not to ask Harvey questions.

Anonymous said...

One day there will be a Harvey Keitel news story that Althouse can't help but write a post about, and the Keitel World will Explode.

MadisonMan said...

What a terrible thing for the kids. First to have one parent shoot the other, while they see it, and then to sit for hours waiting for someone to take care of them.

I wonder what excuse Children's Services gave for the lapse in time.

bleh said...

That sucks. I liked him as Julien.

MayBee said...

Hopefully he isn't the reason the name "Jace" (Jayce, Jayse) is climbing the baby name charts.

Ann Althouse said...

Interesting that a man called the police and waited for them to arrive. Hard to imagine what that experience was like for the children, and I have to imagine that he tried to take care of them during the time he waited for the police and that he at least set an example of taking responsibility for what he had done.

Ann Althouse said...

By "I have to imagine" I mean: I hope this is true.

Curious George said...

"Ann Althouse said...
By "I have to imagine" I mean: I hope this is true."

Except that's not what it means and I don't think that's what happened. I have to imagine he killed her in rage, and then realized what he had done and was too shocked to do anything else but face the inevitable.

I also have to imagine that my saying "who" had something to do wit it.

SJ said...

This story is incredibly sad.

Most times, when an actor does something crazy, it's something that does little harm to others.

Anyway...I'm reminded of something else.

There's a category of high-tech prank which goes a lot like this.

I think it's called "SWATting". The prank caller figures out how to spoof the "callerID data", calls 911, and impersonates his target. The impersonator confesses to murdering a family member, and holding other family members hostage.

This tends to generate a Police response with heavy SWAT presence, and a confused homeowner who wonder why the Police have charged in to save the his family.

This is the first time I've heard of an actual "I killed my wife" call at the Emergency Services center.

Perhaps these things do happen on occasion, but Police and reporters don't give most such cases a lot of attention.

This time around, an emergency call made from the location of a well-known actor made it hard to hide the details...

cubanbob said...

Jace's 2 kids witnessed him allegedly shooting and killing their mom. The kids — both under 10 — were extremely upset"

Who ever wrote this must be publicly flogged as a service to the public.

jr565 said...

I recognize him from The Shield.
Horrible. At least he was up front about it though. Not that it should get him a get out of jail free card of course.

Michael K said...

Well, at least Phil Hartman's wife saved the state the cost of prosecution when she shot him.

"Emmy-award winning "Saturday Night Live" star Phil Hartman was shot dead yesterday in his California mansion by his wife, who then killed herself as cops carried their pajama-clad children from the house, police said."

And the cops took care of the kids. She was a druggie and a loser.

"" As for his wife, Peterson didn't mince words. "She was a very troubled person with a lot of problems," said Peterson, who added that she tried to talk Hartman out of marrying her in 1987."


madAsHell said...

Maybe he intended to execute a murder-suicide, but forgot the second step.

Ann Althouse said...

Maybe it was self-defense. That he didn't kill himself and that he called the police and waited for them could be evidence it was.

Illuninati said...

His actions appear to be spontaneous. If he had preplanned the shooting he would have probably done it when the children could witness it. From the little bit we know his impetuous rage subsided he probably acted quite normally.

There might be a scientific explanation for this behavior. It would be interesting to find out what his monoamine oxidase A/B haplotypes are and how they play into this behavior. The genes aren't destiny so one can not excuse this crime because of genetics but when an individual doesn't actively suppress the activity encoded in the genes this type of behavior may emerge.

MayBee said...

If it were a woman who killed her husband, I bet most people would assume it was self defense or battered wife syndrome. People often assume men deserve their murder-by-spouse, but women don't.

Curious George said...

I had an assistant who's insane ex-husband murdered her. When the cops showed up he had a t-shirt on that said "Sheila Gallo my wife forever". They had a very young daughter...who will neither have a mother or father because of that sick fuck.

Bob Boyd said...

"Maybe it was self-defense."

I hope there is something like that.
Multiple shots doesn't sound like an accidental shooting.
How could a man who has two kids come to the conclusion that killing their mother is the thing to do?
And of course they lose both parents in that case.

madAsHell said...

Self-defense!?
Was there a knife?
Was she an Olympic athlete?
There are very few women that could threaten, and physically dominate a man.

Skeptical Voter said...

Just might be an occasion to close one's mouth and wait and see what additional information becomes available before opening one's mouth and expressing an opinion. About all that one can say now is that this was a sad situation.

The Crack Emcee said...

Murder in marriage:

I'll wait for more details,...

Nichevo said...

What wife and kids? Officer Lowe was on the Down Lowe!

furious_a said...

When seconds count, Child Protective Services is only four hours away.

Dr Weevil said...

Whoever wrote "kids witnessed him allegedly shooting and killing their mom" is an idiot. The word "allegedly" belongs before "witnessed". There doesn't seem to be any uncertainty or allegedness about the shooting and killing, since he admits it, though there may be some doubt at this point whether the killing was murder or manslaughter or (conceivably) justifiable homicide.

donald said...

I knew a lady that worked for dfacs in Georgia.

She quit after a week.

By the time they get assigned, the family situation surrounding the child is horrifying and is only going to get exponentially worse. Everybody is looking to put the blame on someone else. There is no chance of success and the end result, if you're lucky, vitriol, disgust and scorn by fellow systems hopefully while your covering your face in front of tv cameras after some animal killed a kid dumped on you.

Just sayin.

Anonymous said...

A 4-hour response time may seem outrageous, but Children's Services may not be set up and funded as an emergency response agency with staff members on duty or at least on call 24/7.

Peter

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

He's not booked as of this reading.

Was it self-defense?

mccullough said...

Sounds like self defense to me

Anonymous said...

most major police departments have social workers on staff. So I'm thinking it's the police throwing Children's Services under the bus for something that maybe they didn't handle well. Think Sgt. Phil Esterhaus shouting into the squad room? "Hey, what are these kids doing here? Who's taking care of 'em.?"

SGT Ted said...

I have thought for some time that Child Services should be staffed by cops and not social workers with their 9 to 5 civilian attitude.

madAsHell said...

He's been charged with murder.

grackle said...

He's been charged.

http://tinyurl.com/nmwb55x

Manty Five said...

Saying that of course this couldn't be a case of self-defense is merely outrageous sexism.

Spousal abuse by females is already significant and rising. The chief difference between male and female spousal abuse is that the male uses his fists most of the time, and the female usually uses a weapon.

As for underreporting, how many men are eager to go to the police station and tell the cops that his wife beat him up? How many cops would laugh him out of the station, just as women were "discouraged" from filing complaints in the bad old days?

We don't have any evidence yet for making a self-defense claim, and THAT is the reason we should not do so, not because we ignorantly reject the possibility that she was trying to put a cell phone or steak knife through his eye.

Manty Five said...

Saying that of course this couldn't be a case of self-defense is merely outrageous sexism.

Spousal abuse by females is already significant and rising. The chief difference between male and female spousal abuse is that the male uses his fists most of the time, and the female usually uses a weapon.

As for underreporting, how many men are eager to go to the police station and tell the cops that his wife beat him up? How many cops would laugh him out of the station, just as women were "discouraged" from filing complaints in the bad old days?

We don't have any evidence yet for making a self-defense claim, and THAT is the reason we should not do so, not because we ignorantly reject the possibility that she was trying to put a cell phone or steak knife through his eye.

chickelit said...

Crack was right!

Manty Five said...

Jace appeared to be suffering severe financial strain in recent years, according to court documents obtained by CNN. The actor filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in March 2011, citing $500,000 in debts and an annual income of around $80,000 from residuals from his TV and film work, the documents said.

Jace had defaulted on the $411,000 mortgage on the south Los Angeles home where his wife died, according to the documents. His bankruptcy case is still active, according to his lawyer.


Money is one of top reasons for divorce. When you're young, maybe a football player or actor, you get so much money and all kinds of hanger's about all trying to convince you that money will last forever. And so you get used to the lifestyle, and some can't come back from it even when the income won't support it anymore.

Anonymous said...

A few years ago, about 15 miles from me, a man had been shot in the street in some sort of drug feud. As there was some possible evidence scattered around the scene the police officer in charge decided not to move the body without getting the okay from a detective.
As it was a weekend, and the Suffolk County police detectives did not work 24/7, there was no one immediately available. The scene commander called the cell phones of something like 20 to 25 detectives, only to get voicemailed each time. By the time a detective could be summoned to the scene the stiff had been lying in the street for several hours, in plain view of many residences.

Peter

Fandor said...

Hollywoodland…too much, too soon…just another hellhole in the USA, except we're suppose to care about these sad souls.

How many homicides have there been in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago…you get the picture…another asshole murders another human being, for what?

We're truly a sad, lost lot, we humans.

Julie C said...

And he threatened to kill his previous wife. Sounds like she was lucky to get out alive.

John Enright said...

I have no stats, but from years of reading crime stories, the scenario here, kill-spouse-and-call-cops, is not too unusual. The murderer is in shock, feeling sorry and guilty, and immediately confesses. Easiest kind of homicide to solve. But... I suppose there's some chance it was self-defense, but you would think we would have heard of that by now.

RecChief said...

so...with efficiency and caring like this, let's put the government in charge of all things. let's start with healthcare, we even have a test lab for how it will work-- The VA