Husband’s Lawyers Say Many Had Murder Motive
Attorneys for Donald Miralle of La Canada Flintridge, on trial on charges that he strangled his wife of 21 years and left her body burning in a remote part of San Bernardino County, said others had reason to kill Tessie Miralle.
A. Brent Carruth of Woodland Hills, head of a three-lawyer team, said that “evidence will show a number of people had reason to kill” the woman.
Defense lawyers have contended outside court that Tessie Miralle ran the equivalent of a loan-sharking operation. Carruth asserted outside the trial in Victorville Superior Court that Tessie Miralle, a native Filipino, had dealings with people in the Philippines other than those in her legitimate export-import business, but he declined to elaborate.
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