GLENDALE : Charges Dismissed in Man’s Fatal Shooting

An involuntary manslaughter charge was dropped Tuesday against a 24-year-old woman accused of killing her husband last July in their Glendale apartment, court officials said.

Judge J. Michael Byrne dismissed the case against Yulissa Buruca.

The judge’s decision came after a six-man, six-woman jury deadlocked 9 to 3 last Tuesday in favor of acquitting Buruca of involuntary manslaughter in the July 21, 1992, death of Jose Antonio Buruca, 30.

Buruca has been released from custody since last Tuesday.

“He (the judge) didn’t really think that any other jury would find her guilty based on the evidence,” said the defendant’s public defender, Terri Foster. “We’re extremely happy with the result.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Nancy Naftel, who prosecuted the case, asked to retry Buruca on the involuntary manslaughter charge, but the judge denied the request.

Buruca was arrested the same day she called police about the shooting death in the 1000 block of Elm Avenue. During a seven-day trial in Pasadena Superior Court, Naftel contended that Buruca shot her husband during an argument over his affair with another woman.

But Buruca testified that she fired at her husband after catching him trying to molest their daughter. She also told jurors that she had been battered as a wife and that her two children had been physically and sexually abused.

“I think they (jurors) had a lot of sympathy for the defendant,” Naftel said.