Charles Leppan, the former Twentynine Palms Marine who pleaded guilty in June to the murder of his ex-wife, 33-year-old Jean Leppan, was sentenced Friday. Following the reading of impact statements calling for maximum punishment from the victim’s family, Joshua Tree Superior Court Judge Rodney Cortez sentenced the 46-year-old to 13 years in state prison with credit for time served along with financial restitution that Leppan will owe the family. Leppan, who remarried another woman within a few weeks of the murder, was not charged with the crime until 2013 following the discovery of Jean Leppan’s partially-decomposed body in a shallow grave in Wonder Valley. That discovery gave prosecutors sufficient evidence to arrest Charles Leppan and extradite him from Michigan back to California. He has been in jail on $1 million bail since October 2013. In June, Leppan pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault by means of force likely to produce gross bodily injury as part of a plea bargain agreement with the DA. In a statement to the court, Leppan expressed deep remorse for the murder and all the pain it has caused for their children and for her family. He also said that he never stopped loving Jean and that he apologizes to her every day.
FORMER TWENTYNINE PALMS MARINE SENTENCED TO 13 YEARS FOR THE MURDER OF HIS EX-WIFE
