Husband in Shooting Case Surrenders

A self-employed tile setter surrendered to police Wednesday, a day after he allegedly shot his pregnant wife in the head as the result of a child custody dispute.

Anthony L. Totten, 32, accompanied by his attorney, turned himself in to Orange police at 12:20 p.m., Police Sgt. Bob Gustafson said. The attorney, John F. Hendry, said Totten required medical attention for two bullet wounds to his right leg.

Totten is accused of wounding his estranged wife, Janet C. Totten, as she was leaving her doctor’s office in Huntington Beach. He was booked on suspicion of attempted murder after being treated at Garden Grove Community Hospital for a “minor” wound, Police Lt. Ed McErlain said.

Hendry said Totten’s leg wounds were a result of his client “allegedly being shot by his wife” on Tuesday, the same day he allegedly shot her. Further details were not available.

Hendry said his client expressed remorse for any role he might have had in Tuesday morning’s shooting, adding that the incident “has been a shock” for both his client and his client’s wife.

Huntington Beach police said that Anthony Totten had been waiting for his wife, who is five months pregnant, outside the Kaiser-Permanente clinic in the 18000 block of Beach Boulevard at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The couple reportedly had been bickering recently about child-visitation rights. Married since 1984, Anthony Totten had filed for divorce a day before his wife obtained a court order barring him from seeing her and the couple’s two young children, court documents show.

Police gave this account of the shooting:

As Janet Totten was attempting to drive out the parking lot of the clinic, her husband confronted her and brandished a .22-caliber rifle. Janet Totten jumped out of her 1986 Ford Taurus and attempted to flee into the clinic but was shot on a sidewalk outside.

Anthony Totten fled, leaving the rifle. His white and blue Ford Ranger was found at the rear of the clinic’s parking lot and was impounded by police.

Janet Totten, 29, a clerical specialist for a Santa Ana bank, was recovering Wednesday at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach. She is expected to undergo surgery soon to remove a bullet lodged in the left side of her head, said her brother, Timothy Quick.

Since the shooting, Janet Totten has been in shock and has not shown much emotion, Quick said. On Wednesday, however, his sister broke down during a visit with her sister, Jeannie Brown.

“They both cried. I guess she finally realized he was trying to kill her,” Quick said.

The shooting followed a drawn-out breakup that began with the couple’s separation in February, court documents suggest.

Anthony Totten has acted violently toward his wife and has threatened her since they separated, according to the documents.

On Friday, Commissioner Richard G. Vogl barred Anthony Totten from going within 100 yards of his wife, 4-year-old daughter, Melissa, and 1-year-old son, Eric.

In a written statement supporting the temporary restraining order, Janet Totten gave this description of their relationship and recent encounters between them:

The couple separated because of “constant fighting, verbal harassing and continual threats” made by her husband.

“He would threaten to hit me, put my face through a wall or take my car away,” she wrote. On Oct. 23, her husband kept calling her, upset over their child custody arrangement.

“One of the main things he stated was that if I was standing in front of him, he would kick me in the stomach as hard as he could so I would lose the baby I’m carrying,” she wrote.

That night, Anthony Totten drove up as she was leaving work and confronted her, yelling, then followed her to her car, where he broke off its turn signal indicator, Janet Totten’s statement said.

The dispute continued as she made her way to the baby-sitter’s house, she wrote.

Once they both arrived at the baby sitter’s, she said, he flattened one of her car tires with a wire cutter, then followed her into the house. She tried to call police, but he grabbed the phone out of her hands, she said.

Times staff writer Catherine Gewertz contributed to this report.