Man Guilty of Manslaughter in ’83 Killing : Courts: He claimed that the Irvine man he admitted killing had sexually assaulted him.

A foundry worker who said he killed an Irvine tire store owner in 1983 after the man sexually assaulted him was convicted of involuntary manslaughter Wednesday and may return home to his family as soon as Christmas.

Scott Andrew Stockwell, who has been in custody more than two years since his arrest on murder charges in 1993, cried at the verdict. His wife, Megan Stockwell, said her prayers had been answered.

“I’m thrilled, you wouldn’t believe it,” she said.

Stockwell, 34, was accused of bludgeoning Boyd William Finkel with a heavy rubber mallet. He could have been sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison had he been convicted of first-degree murder.

Defense attorney Jon Alexander said the manslaughter conviction means his client faces up to five years in prison, but could be released by Christmas based on the time he has already served in jail.

“It was a long road,” said Alexander, who represented Stockwell for no fee. “This is what you go to law school for.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Debora Lloyd contended during the monthlong trial that Stockwell lied about being sexually assaulted and held captive by the victim. She was disappointed with the verdict and said she had not decided what type of sentence she will seek.

The slaying of the 39-year-old Finkel remained unsolved for nearly 10 years until a new computerized fingerprint database in Montana yielded a match between prints left at the crime scene and those of Stockwell on file from a 1986 drunk driving arrest.

When he was arrested in Wisconsin, Stockwell had a steady job at a foundry, a wife attending nursing school and a 4-year-old daughter whom he loved to spoil. His wife said he had kicked a drug problem to build a new life.

Stockwell testified during the Orange County Superior Court trial that the fatal attack occurred Oct. 15, 1983, after Finkel fed him potent cocktails possibly spiked with drugs and, with the help of another man, held him down and sexually attacked him in a bedroom of Finkel’s Irvine home.

Finkel had picked up Stockwell hitchhiking that day and offered him a place to stay for the night, Stockwell testified.

After the alleged attack, Stockwell said that he tried to escape through the garage, but that Finkel blocked his way. He told jurors that “everything kind of went black” when he started hitting Finkel with a mallet he had picked up to defend himself.

Finkel’s shirtless body was found a week later in the trunk of his blue Cadillac in his garage. Stockwell said he didn’t call police because he feared murder charges, and took off for Montana the next day in one of Finkel’s cars.

Lloyd, however, challenged Stockwell’s account, telling jurors his story was full of lies and inconsistencies. The jury heard a tape of Stockwell’s interview with police when he was arrested in 1993, which begins with him stating that Finkel was alive and well when he saw him last.

But Stockwell’s attorney sought to portray Finkel as a predator, and compared Stockwell’s violent reaction to that of a rape victim.

“He had always said he saw red and flipped out,” Alexander said. “This guy had raped him.”

Megan Stockwell, 24, now living in Mobile, Ala., said she was raped herself several years ago and never doubted her husband’s story.

“You never know how you’re going to react until you’re in that situation,” she said.