Woman, 70, Guilty of Slaying Husband : Jury Decides ‘Battered Wife Syndrome’ Did Not Apply in Case

A Temple City woman who said she stabbed her husband to death last August in self-defense after enduring 49 years of battering was convicted Tuesday of second-degree murder.

Frances Caccavale--a petite, bespectacled, 70-year-old grandmother of three--sobbed and slumped in her seat as the verdict was read and confirmed by the seven-man, five-woman jury in Pasadena Superior Court.

Attorneys for both sides, the judge and a juror agreed that, although the two-week trial had been considered a major test of the “battered wife syndrome,” the verdict was not a rejection of the syndrome as an element of self-defense theory.

“We decided right away that she was not a battered wife,” juror Tom Hammond said. “Except for her relatives, there was no corroborating evidence that she was battered.”

Judge Coleman A. Swart, who presided, said, “I don’t think it did much of anything to the battered wife syndrome. The jury found that Mrs. Caccavale did not fit the syndrome. It was a matter of ultimate fact.”

In an interview at her apartment after the trial, Frances Caccavale, who remains free on bail pending sentencing, insisted that she is innocent.

“Whether they believe it or not, I was abused,” she said. “If I’d known years ago what I know today, maybe this wouldn’t have happened. But there was no place for me to go, no (battered women) shelters . . . .”

The Caccavale trial is believed to be only the second case in which a judge in Los Angeles County has allowed expert testimony on battered wife syndrome. Nancy Kaser-Boyd, a clinical psychologist and specialist in spousal abuse, testified that the syndrome is displayed in women who submit to prolonged physical and psychological abuse before taking revenge, often violently.

During pretrial motions, Swart ruled that Kaser-Boyd could describe the syndrome in general terms but could not testify whether Caccavale actually suffered from the condition. Defense attorney Barbara Roberts said Swart’s ruling hindered her defense efforts.

“From the outset, it put us behind the eight ball,” the lawyer said. She added that Swart’s restrictions will form the basis of an appeal.

Caccavale stabbed her 69-year-old husband, Frank, three times in the back last Aug. 31 after a final attempt to reconcile their stormy 49-year marriage.

The couple had traveled to New York to visit relatives when they argued and Frank Caccavale returned home alone. When Frances came home two weeks later, there was a final confrontation. The defendant testified that her husband was packing his bags to leave when he threatened to kill her and reached for a gun hidden under the bed.

Confession Heard

In a taped confession played in court, jurors heard the defendant relating that she told her husband, “You’re not leaving me stranded after 50 years. . . . I stabbed him and stabbed him and stabbed him. He just toppled over and started making moans and I looked and said, ‘You’re not dead. No you’re not, because you tortured me for 50 years. Fifty years you tortured me and now I’m going to torture you.’ ”

The prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. J. Whitney Morris, argued that the taped confession and other evidence proved that Caccavale killed her husband not out of self-defense but because she was angry that he was leaving her.

Morris contended in closing arguments that the death of the couple’s only child 10 years ago triggered a turning point in the relationship, and Frances began emotionally abusing her husband. Morris said the husband and wife engaged in “constant mutual combat. . . . Frank Junior died and Frank Senior died with him. He became a puppy dog, a lamb. Frank Caccavale was a battered spouse and Frances Caccavale was the one who exploded.”

Roberts labeled Morris’ performance during closing arguments, “Hollywood at its finest,” and asserted that the portrayal of the victim, a burly 180-pounder, as the submissive partner was “ridiculous.”

Unusual Defense

The battered wife syndrome defense is an unusual and still-evolving legal concept seeking to expand the traditional definition of self-defense, which has been based on the theory that a person can use that degree of force reasonably necessary to defend him or herself against what is believed at the moment to be an imminent attack. The defense tactic, however, holds that past abuse is relevant in understanding a women’s state of mind at the moment of attack and that years of physical and emotional abuse can justify the killing of a spouse under certain circumstances.

Hammond said he and his fellow jurors rejected a manslaughter verdict because of evidence of malice. “We felt the defense had a weak case and just fell back on the battered wife syndrome defense as a last resort,” the juror said. “We all agreed that the syndrome exists in some women but not in this case.”

Morris called the verdict “an absolutely perfect outcome . . . . This was not a battered wife. The battered wife syndrome was not tested in this courtroom in this case.”

Caccavale could receive a sentence ranging from probation to 15 years to life in prison when she returns to court Sept. 16.