Slaying of TV Producer : Maid’s Confession Recounted to Court

A live-in maid who admitted bludgeoning her employer to death implored police not to tell the man’s wife that someone the family trusted so much had killed him, according to testimony Monday in a Van Nuys Municipal Court hearing.

Mayra Melendez Lopez, 25, summoned police to the Woodland Hills home of television producer Herbert Wallerstein on Nov. 26 and admitted beating him to death with a baseball bat two months earlier, Los Angeles Police Detective Joseph Diglio testified.

Lopez said she placed Wallerstein’s body inside his car and set it afire two days after the slaying in an effort to cover up her acts, Diglio said.

Lopez, a Salvadoran immigrant, had worked for the family nearly seven years and was thought of “like a daughter” by Wallerstein’s wife, Emita, Diglio said.

Will Argue Self-Defense

“She didn’t want Mrs. Wallerstein to know what she was telling us because it would kill Mrs. Wallerstein,” Diglio said.

Although Lopez has been charged with murder, her attorney, Deputy Public Defender Mark Lessem, said he will argue that she acted in self-defense.

In a 90-minute taped statement, Lopez told police that Wallerstein, whose wife and teen-age son were vacationing in Mexico at the time, had come home from a supermarket in a foul mood and had kicked the family dog, Diglio said. Lopez claimed that, when she tried to intercede, Wallerstein struck her, causing her to fall to the ground, Diglio said.

Lopez told police that she then picked up a bat and repeatedly struck Wallerstein, Diglio said. Wallerstein was not armed and there was no evidence that he had abused Lopez before, Diglio said.

After killing Wallerstein on Friday, Sept. 27, Lopez summoned a friend who helped her move Wallerstein’s body to the back seat of his car, Diglio said. Lopez then drove the vehicle half a mile away and parked it at the curb in a residential neighborhood, with bags of groceries covering the body, Diglio said.

Set Car on Fire

The car sat there until Sunday morning, Sept. 29, when Lopez set it afire with a flammable liquid, Diglio said. A neighbor testified Monday that she saw a short, heavy-set Hispanic woman who fit Lopez’s description running from the scene.

Although investigators tied the eyewitness description to Lopez, the family at first rushed to her defense, saying that she could not possibly have been involved, Diglio said. Lopez explained away a bruise over one eye, saying that she had fallen in the bathtub.

Until her confession, the only evidence linking Lopez to the slaying was a speck of blood matching Wallerstein’s blood type found on one of her sandals, Diglio said. Lopez was to undergo a blood test to determine if the blood could have been hers when she called police to confess, Diglio said.

Buried Evidence

On the way to the police station, Lopez told officers that she had buried evidence in a field at El Camino High School, Diglio testified. There, police found blood-stained clothing, a bedspread and Wallerstein’s wallet and credit cards, he said.

Lopez’s statement will be played today when her preliminary hearing resumes. Judge James M. Coleman will determine whether the prosecution has presented enough evidence to hold Lopez for trial.

Wallerstein was a veteran television director and producer, and a former top executive for 20th Century Fox.