Prosecutor Attacks Self-Defense Claim : Trial of Slain Producer’s Maid Begins

Calling Mayra Melendez Lopez’s claims of self-defense “self-serving,” a prosecutor alleged Thursday that the maid of television producer Herbert Wallerstein committed manslaughter when she used “excessive force” and bludgeoned him to death with a baseball bat.

In opening statements to a Van Nuys Superior Court jury, Deputy Dist. Atty. Norman F. Montrose said one of the 10 blows from the bat struck Wallerstein in the groin with such force that he would have “doubled over.” In such a condition, Montrose said, Wallerstein would have posed no threat to Lopez, 26, his maid of seven years.

Lopez admitted to police that she killed her employer but said she acted in self-defense after he hit her and knocked her down. Although the prosecution has no witness to dispute her account of the killing, Montrose said that, even if her statements are to be believed, she overreacted when she killed Wallerstein.

Lopez was first charged with murder in the Sept. 27 bludgeoning of Wallerstein, 59, in his Woodland Hills home.

However, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge James A. Albracht reduced the charge to voluntary manslaughter in February, ruling that the prosecution had presented insufficient evidence at a preliminary hearing to show that Lopez had acted with premeditation and malice.

Wallerstein’s body was found Sept. 29 in his burning car two blocks from his home, arson investigators testified Thursday.

Lopez led detectives to a hilly area where she had buried blood-stained clothes and Wallerstein’s wallet, jewelry and identification, police testified.

Montrose told jurors that they would hear a 90-minute taped interview with police in which Lopez alleges that Wallerstein, for no apparent reason, knocked her down after she had served him a dish of ice cream. In what she decribed as an effort to protect herself, Lopez picked up a baseball bat and beat him, Montrose said.

Lopez admitted to police that she placed Wallerstein’s body in the back seat of his car on the night of the killing and had her boyfriend drive the vehicle several blocks away and park it in a residential neighborhood, Montrose said. Two days later, the boyfriend, who has never been found, set the car afire, Lopez told investigators.

Montrose said, however, that witnesses will identify Lopez as the person they saw walking from the car just before it burst into flames.

Deputy Public Defender Mark Lessem, who is representing Lopez, urged jurors to pay particular attention to a portion of the taped statement in which detectives repeatedly asked Lopez if she was angry with Wallerstein.

Describing his client as a Salvadoran immigrant who is unsophisticated and uneducated, Lessem said she consistently responded, “No, I was not mad. I was scared.”

The trial is expected to take two weeks and will resume Monday.