A California chef who admitted cooking his wife's remains to destroy evidence was found guilty Thursday of second-degree murder in a trial that included an audio recording of the man explaining the four-day cooking process to deputies.

Deliberations by the jury of six men and six women spanned three days before they reached their verdict Thursday morning, finding David Viens, 49, guilty of killing 39-year-old Dawn Viens. The victim's sister sobbed as the verdict was read.

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The second-degree murder verdict indicates jurors did not believe the murder was premeditated or planned in advance.

Defense attorneys argued that Viens did not intend to kill his wife. Prosecutors claimed the death of Viens' wife "was no accident."

Dawn Viens disappeared in 2009. In an audio recording of an interview played in court last week, Viens -- a former chef at the Thyme Contemporary Cafe in Lomita -- described to deputies what he did with his wife's remains.

Document: David Viens' interview with deputies
Related: California chef admitted slow-cooking wife's body

"I took some, some things like weights that we use and I put them on the top of her body, and I just slowly cooked it and I ended up cooking her for four days," Viens said on tape.

Viens told authorities he argued with his wife, then restrained her with duct tape. Viens told investigators that he found his wife dead the morning after the argument.

Viens had jumped off a Rancho Palos Verdes oceanside cliff in 2011 after he learned he was under suspicion in the 2009 death. After being hospitalized in what police said was a suicide attempt, Viens implicated himself in the killing, police said at the time. 

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After Viens' arrest, authorities dug underground at the Pacific Coast Highway restaurant, looking for Dawn Viens' remains, which were never found.

Sentencing in the case is scheduled for Nov. 27. Viens faces 15 years to life in prison.

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A Southern California chef on trial for allegedly killing his wife told police he slow-cooked her body then dumped it out as kitchen waste, according to an interview that was played in court on Tuesday.

Dawn Viens disappeared in 2009 and police identified her husband David – the chef at the former Thyme Café in Torrance, Calif. – as a prime suspect.

In 2011, investigators dug up the Thyme Café, which Dawn co-owned, searching for her body. But in a taped interview played Tuesday in court, David Viens seemed to tell police why her remains may never be found.

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"I took some, some things like weights that we use and I put them on the top of her body, and I just slowly cooked it and I ended up cooking her for four days," Viens said on tape.

Documents: Read David Viens' interview with deputies

Viens claimed he argued with his wife, then bound her arms and feet and duct-taped her mouth shut. He said he panicked when he found her dead the next morning.

Viens claimed he stuffed his wife's 105-pound body in a drum and disposed of the remains as if it were kitchen waste.

"I came up with the idea of cleaning the grease traps and commingling in the, the excess, the excess protein," he could be heard saying on the tape.

David Viens told police he recovered Dawn's skull and jawbone and hid them in his mother's attic. Investigators say they never recovered any body parts.

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Dick Yarwood/Newsday, file

Mark and Michelle Schimel at a polling place March 27, 2007, when she was running for the 16th district in the New York State Assembly.

Politics make strange bedfellows, especially in Long Island, N.Y., where an estranged husband and wife are running for the same seat.

Michelle Schimel, D-Great Neck, is serving her third term in the New York State Assembly. Her opponent is Mark Schimel, the man she separated from last year after 32 years of marriage, who is planning to run as a Republican.

"This is a very painful and personal family matter. The Republican Party is . . . using it as an opportunity to drag my personal life into the public," Michelle Schimel, 54, said in a statement, according to Newsday. "I will run this campaign as I have every campaign: on the issues, on my record, and on my values."

Mark Schimel, 57, was nominated last Thursday by Nassau County and still needs to file nominating petitions, according to Newsday. He is a vice president at Infosys International, an IT company.

His decision to run shocked his own mother.

“You’re joking,” Irma Schimel told The New York Daily News when she learned of his political aspirations. “This is a really startling thing. It’s a shock. Why would he do this?”

His estranged wife has been in office since 2007, according to her website. She served as town clerk in North Hempstead, N.Y., before being elected to the Assembly.

A local GOP leader told Newsday Mark Schimel is serious about running.

"We talked about it a couple of times, and he is serious. We've told him that we want a dignified and issue-oriented campaign,"  said Frank Moroney, North Hempstead Town GOP leader.

The couple has two kids and still hasn't legally divorced, reported The New York Daily News. Irma Schimel told the paper she still considers Michelle her daughter in-law, even receiving a Mother's Day card from her this year.

“I love her very much,” Irma Schimel said. “I can’t believe he’d do a thing like this. I’m going to talk to him.”

She predicted her son would lose against Michelle.

Scott Levenson, general consultant for Michelle Schimel,  told Politico.com that Mark's bid was a political stunt, and vowed her campaign would be about "civility and decency," not candidates' personal lives.

“We’re going to keep the personal life of the assembly member private,” Levenson said. “The fact is the Republican party is clearly manipulating this situation, sadly, for their own political game. Assembly member Schimel is committed to keeping civility and decency in both the way she runs her government office and the way she runs her political campaign.”

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