Lawyers Begin Final Arguments in Delon Murder Trial

When Kimberly Delon buried the husband she had killed and later called a professional cleaner to remove puddles of blood from her new, white carpet, she was either carrying out a murderous plan or just seeking to protect the emotional health of her children after killing in self-defense.

Those were the conflicting claims jurors heard Monday as attorneys gave closing arguments in the homicide trial of the 34-year-old Solana Beach woman.

For two weeks, the attorneys have presented evidence about the Aug. 31 stabbing death of Bernard Delon, also 34. At issue is whether Kimberly Delon was acting in self-defense when she stabbed her husband five times, including two times in the back.

Delon claims that she was being attacked when she stabbed her husband, and that she buried him in the front yard only after being threatened with the same fate and so her children wouldn’t see the body.

During her 4 1/2-hour closing argument, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ann Barber attempted to show that Delon planned the killing, as shown by a shallow grave that the defendant admittedly dug less than 12 hours before her husband lay dead in the hallway of the couple’s home.

Using several large charts, Barber laboriously pointed out details to the jury, including small statements that Delon made in a jailhouse interview one week after the killing and fragments of physical evidence that the prosecutor said showed “malice aforethought.”

Barber sought to undermine the defendant’s claim that her husband was choking her at the time of the stabbing. “She describes this incident as being pinned and choked,” which would have made it extremely difficult to remove the large knife which was hidden in a sheath under the couple’s mattress, Barber said.

Also, according to the prosecutor, Delon tried to cover her actions when she told a neighbor the day before the stabbing that her husband would soon be traveling to visit his mother who had just returned home from a five-week visit with the Delons.

After a five-year marriage that produced two children, it was clear that the union was troubled, even though there was no history of physical violence, both attorneys agreed.

But, in his closing argument that directly contradicted Barber on several levels, defense attorney Charles Goldberg contended that his client had been struck and threatened with death only days before the stabbing.

Using statistics to show that thousands of women die every year because of physical abuse and that “every 43 hours in this state a woman loses her life in a domestic dispute,” Goldberg asserted that the case hinges on “violence and abuse.”

Delon lacked any motive to kill her husband other than to protect herself, but Bernard Delon may have desired access to his wife’s money, even though he no longer wanted her, Goldberg suggested in a theory new to the case.

As for the shallow grave, the depth shows that it was obviously not dug for the burial of her husband, Goldberg said. Delon maintains she had dug up the garden in preparation for the planting of her fall crop.

“I can’t believe that anyone can think that proof was produced beyond a reasonable doubt that Kimberly Delon dug a grave in her vegetable garden no deeper than 14 inches,” the defense attorney said.

Goldberg urged jurors to listen to the tape of the interview with Delon in jail. “Listen, and you’ll hear the emotion, the confusion, the mental turmoil this woman is going through.”

Goldberg will continue his closing argument today, and Barber will be allowed to give the last word to the jury. Deliberations are expected to begin late this afternoon.