Murder Trial for Owner of Boardinghouse Starts

The murder trial of boardinghouse owner Dorothea Montalvo Puente began here Monday, four years after police dug up seven bodies from her Sacramento yard.

Prosecutors allege that the 63-year-old Puente killed nine people from 1982 to 1988 with overdoses of medication to get their Social Security and other government benefit checks.

Superior Court Judge Michael J. Virga is scheduled to begin selecting a jury today; the process may last two weeks or longer. Attorneys in the case say the trial may take six to 10 months.

Defense attorneys claim that all the deaths were from natural causes or suicide. Puente, who could face the death penalty if convicted, has pleaded not guilty.

A social worker’s suspicions about a client who lived at the Puente boardinghouse led police to the bodies in November, 1988. Seven corpses were found buried in the yard and two were found elsewhere. The bodies were too decomposed for autopsies to determine the causes of deaths.

Puente was arrested in Los Angeles, where she had fled after the bodies were discovered. In a television interview after her arrest, Puente said: “I have not killed anyone. The checks I cashed, yes.”