No Charges to Be Filed in Abusive Husband’s Slaying : Violence: A North Hills woman stabbed the man only after he threatened to beat her and came after her, police say.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office Monday decided not to file charges against a North Hills woman who stabbed to death her abusive husband last week.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Rosalie Morton said evidence presented by police investigators indicated that Tammy Lynn Amaya, 25, stabbed Roberto Amaya, 31, only after he threatened to beat her and came after her.

“It was self-defense,” Morton said. “She has been abused for over 10 years. There have been other instances where police reports were filed and other instances where a police report was not filed because he talked her out of it and she refused to testify against him.

“She’s been a punching bag for a long time. She was perpetually petrified. In this case, she went away from him and he came right close to her. She was protecting herself.”

Detective Tom Broad of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Division said he did not have an opinion about whether charges should have been filed, except to say that “the case was handled properly from start to finish.”

Prosecutors “felt that based on the investigation that there was insufficient cause to file a criminal charge,” Broad said. “We did our job and they did their job.”

Tammy Lynn Amaya, who was released from police custody about noon Monday, was arrested Thursday after she called police to report that she had just stabbed her husband. She could not be reached for comment.

At the time of her arrest, police said the couple’s five children--ages 2 to 8--witnessed the killing in the family’s tiny one-bedroom apartment in the 9000 block of Orion Avenue. Police said they found a 10-inch butcher knife on the floor next to her husband’s body.

The children were placed in the custody of the Department of Children’s Services. A department spokesman said an investigation is under way to determine whether or when the children would be returned to their mother.

David Knokey, supervising deputy city attorney for the San Fernando Courthouse, said Roberto Amaya was wanted on two warrants charging him with violating probation on two misdemeanor convictions last year for battery and spousal abuse.

Knokey said that on May 16, 1991, the couple was drinking and began arguing. According to court records, Roberto Amaya pulled a knife out from under his pillow and threatened his wife. When she tried to call police, he slapped her, bloodying her nose.

He was charged with battery, spousal abuse and displaying a knife, and pleaded guilty to spousal abuse. According to Knokey, the man was sentenced to two years probation, ordered to undergo a year of domestic violence counseling and placed in County Jail for 30 days.

Three months later, after another argument, Tammy Lynn Amaya called police after her husband threw her to the floor and put his hand over her mouth so she would not scream.

In September, 1991, he was charged with battery and he pleaded guilty to violating probation. He was sentenced to three years probation and, in addition to the one year of counseling, he was ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings twice a week for a year.

He did not attend any of the meetings, and warrants were issued for his arrest.

According to court records, Tammy Lynn Amaya told authorities that her husband had also abused her in Arizona--from which they moved to California in late 1990--but Knokey could not immediately confirm any prior convictions in that state.

Lydia Bodin, a deputy district attorney who specializes in domestic violence cases, said statistics were not immediately available on the number of cases involving women who kill their abusive husbands.

However, Bodin said the number of cases in which women actually kill men in domestic violence cases is low.

“If there is going to be a homicide, it is the woman who is going to be killed,” she said. “According to FBI statistics, for every 100 women who are killed nationwide, one-third are killed by their boyfriends or husbands, and the rate is slightly higher in Los Angeles County.”

Bodin said that last year 1,200 to 1,400 felony and about 3,500 misdemeanor domestic violence cases were filed in the county.