Accused in TV Producer’s Death : Slaying Trial of Maid Goes to Jury

Closing arguments in the trial of Mayra Melendez Lopez, a housekeeper accused of manslaughter in the bludgeoning death of her employer, television producer Herbert Wallerstein, concluded Friday with the defense attorney describing Lopez as a “wonderful, caring woman” who acted in self-defense.

Mark Lessem, deputy public defender, told a Van Nuys Superior Court jury that the prosecution had presented no evidence to dispute Lopez’s contention that she beat Wallerstein with a baseball bat because he hit her and knocked her to the ground.

“He blackened her eye; he knocked her down; he said he was going to kill her,” Lessem told the jury. “You have a right to defend yourself.”

Lessem said Lopez, 26, cannot explain why Wallerstein, 59, suddenly exploded on the evening of Sept. 27, 1985, and hit his maid of seven years after she served him a dish of ice cream in his Woodland Hills home. The housekeeper told police Wallerstein was not otherwise a violent man.

‘A Human Being’

“Mr. Wallerstein was, like all of us, a human being,” Lessem said. “Sometimes human beings act irrationally.”

The jury will begin deliberating the case Monday.

Testimony in the trial, presided over by Judge James A. Albracht, ended Thursday with Wallerstein’s widow, Emita, testifying for the defense that her husband shoved her on two occasions during their 30-year marriage. The last time, in July, 1985, she fell to the ground and received several bruises, Mrs. Wallerstein said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Norman F. Montrose told the jury that the defense presented that testimony in an effort to smear Wallerstein’s character. No other evidence was uncovered that would suggest that Wallerstein was a violent man, Montrose said.

Montrose described Lopez’s explanation of the killing as a “fairy tale” and argued that Lopez used excessive force, striking Wallerstein at least once in the groin and twice in the head. Each of the three blows would have disabled Wallerstein, Montrose said.

His body was concealed for two days in his car, which was then set afire. Lopez also has been charged with arson in the burning of the car.