Judge Reduces Charge in Boy’s Death : Courts: Father will face arraignment Nov. 15 for voluntary manslaughter, not murder, in the shooting of his 4-year-old son.

A Glendale man accused of fatally shooting his 4-year-old son while under the influence of the drug PCP should stand trial for voluntary manslaughter, not murder, a judge has ruled.

The district attorney’s office initially charged Harold Dean Estrada, 32, a newspaper delivery driver, with murder. But after a preliminary hearing Thursday, Glendale Municipal Judge Joseph De Vanon said the evidence--including emotional testimony from Estrada’s wife regarding the effects of the powerful psychedelic drug and about her husband’s devotion to his son--did not justify the more serious charge.

Investigators said that on Aug. 23 Estrada struggled with his wife over a handgun in the couple’s apartment in the 1500 block of East Harvard Street, then fired at his son, Timothy Flores, hitting the boy once in the chest.

“It’s a tragic case, no matter how you look at it,” De Vanon said.

The judge ordered Estrada to appear Nov. 15 for arraignment in Pasadena Superior Court. A voluntary manslaughter conviction carries a maximum sentence of 11 years in state prison. But a judge could add up to five more years because a gun was used.

Deputy Public Defender Christopher Apostal urged De Vanon to reduce the charge to involuntary manslaughter, which carries a four-year maximum prison term before the gun enhancement.

“I think what we have here is an unintentional killing,” Apostal argued. “There was no intent to kill.”

But the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jay Grobeson, said Estrada may have intended to harm his wife, but he shot his son by mistake because of drug-induced confusion.

De Vanon said there was some evidence of intent because Estrada used a single-action handgun, which fires only after a user both cocks the weapon and pulls the trigger. The judge refused to reduce the charge to involuntary manslaughter, but did lower Estrada’s bail to $200,000 from $500,000.

Sandra Estrada testified that her husband obtained the handgun for her protection because he worked a late shift. He hid the weapon between the mattress and box spring in their bedroom, she said.

Estrada said her husband woke her about 2:30 a.m. Aug. 23. He was behaving oddly, repeatedly rubbing or brushing his arms. Later that morning, he summoned her to the living room, handed her a bottle that smelled of PCP and helped her pour the contents down a sink, she testified.

“He was saying, ‘God, please come into my heart. I don’t want to live this way,’ ” she said.

Later, however, the two began arguing.

“He looked completely different,” Sandra Estrada testified. “He looked like evil.”

The witness said she struggled unsuccessfully to keep her husband from pulling the gun from its hiding place. The movement awoke her stepson, Timothy, who was sleeping on the bed in the room, she testified.

As Harold Estrada left the bedroom with the gun, his son ran after him, Sandra Estrada said.

“I screamed, ‘Timothy, come back! Timothy, come back!’ ” she recalled.

The witness testified that moments later she heard a shot in the living room and found the wounded boy on the sofa. He was dead on arrival at Glendale Adventist Medical Center.

Glendale police said they found Estrada in a dazed condition, sprawled on an embankment on the Glendale High School campus, not far from the apartment. Police drug experts conducted tests that indicated the suspect was under the influence of PCP.

In an interview after the preliminary hearing, Apostal said Estrada was not a cold-blooded killer.

“He really loved his son,” the defense attorney said. “Certainly the drugs were no excuse, but it points to the frailty of human nature. He is very remorseful.”