Policeman’s Shooting of Wife Was an Accident, Jury Is Told

The attorney for a San Diego police officer charged with killing his wife told a jury in his opening statements Monday that the shooting was accidental.

Pablo Agrio, 29, of Paradise Hills, who has been suspended from the force, went on trial on a charge of murder in the March 26 shooting of his wife, Alma Agrio, 23, who was a San Diego County Sheriff’s Department cadet.

Defense attorney Edmundo Espinoza told Superior Court jurors and Judge William Kennedy that the shooting followed an explosive argument between the couple.

Espinoza said Alma Agrio’s blood-alcohol level was .26 at the time of the shooting, more than twice the amount required to legally be considered intoxicated. Pablo Agrio was sober, he said.

The shooting followed a struggle over a gun that Alma Agrio pointed at her husband, Espinoza said.

Jury selection began last week and ended Monday afternoon. Agrio, who had worked for the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program during his four years with the Police Department, remains free on $60,000 bail.