Jurors in Widow’s Trial Visit Scene of Millionaire’s Slaying

Jurors in a murder trial Wednesday visited the family room of a hillside Tarzana home where a 48-year-old woman fatally shot her millionaire husband, saying that she mistook him for a burglar.

Carole Evelyn Mellinger’s attorneys arranged the trip in an attempt to bolster their client’s assertion that she could not clearly see her husband, Brainerd Lee Mellinger, 69, when she fired four shots at him from a handgun.

Carole Mellinger is on trial in Van Nuys Superior Court for first-degree murder in the Jan. 24 killing at the couple’s house in the 19700 block of Komar Drive. The widow, who is free on $400,000 bail, still lives in the house.

Before jurors arrived, her attorneys, a prosecutor, police and Judge Darlene E. Schempp removed pictures and rearranged furniture and drapes, trying to re-create the appearance of the family room on the night of the slaying, as shown by police photographs.

Because she was watching television in the dimly lit room and was intoxicated and asleep after drinking wine on an empty stomach, Mellinger took her husband of 23 years for a burglar, her attorneys contend.

With the lights out and the large-screen TV tuned to a rock music video channel Carole Mellinger said she was watching the night of the killing, 12 jurors and three alternates were brought in.

They sat one at a time in the chair in front of the TV while Detective Robert Brosnon walked into the room, as Brainerd Mellinger did on the night of his death.

This was repeated with the curtains in a different position because the prosecution and defense disagree on how they were.

Prosecutor Ann Korban contends that Carole Mellinger killed her husband in anger because he had been having an affair for 12 years and because she feared his plans to sell his import-export business would decrease the value of his estate.

Carole Mellinger told police after the killing that she loved her husband, didn’t mind that he had a mistress and would get only a very small amount of money from his death, a contention disputed by the prosecutor. She said her husband had told her he wasn’t coming home the night of his death and that she feared she was being stalked by one of his former employees. The employee was “an ex-mass murderer” who had made obscene phone calls to her, Carole Mellinger told Los Angeles police.

Prosecutors said there is no evidence to support the allegations.