Rape Stole Victim’s Will to Live, Prosecutors Say : O.C. courts: Murder charge against man in death of woman, 79, is unprecedented. Critics say it’s racist.

Mary Ward was 79, active in her church and helped manage a Stanton apartment complex. Her independence was abruptly shattered by an intruder who raped her at knifepoint as her cries were recorded on a 911 line.

When she died a month after the May, 1992, attack, a coroner’s investigator determined the cause of death was congenital heart failure and pneumonia, and an autopsy showed a ravenous form of lung cancer had taken hold in Ward’s body. No one alleged that physical injuries from the rape caused her death.

But in one of the most novel prosecution theories ever put to the test in Orange County and perhaps the state, the district attorney’s office hopes to prove that Jose Alonso Garcia, 20, murdered Ward--by killing her spirit and sapping her will to live.

The case goes to trial Monday. Prosecutors say they intend to prove that the horror of the attack and Ward’s feelings of shame and humiliation triggered depression and “post-traumatic stress” that worsened her health and contributed to her death.

Defense attorneys, legal scholars and critics say the case could set a dangerous precedent as it delves into deeply emotional, even spiritual issues that have little basis in case law.

Garcia’s lawyer denounced the theory as “voodoo.”

“This whole case is just insanity,” said Deputy Public Defender Leonard Gumlia. “I guess this means that if a burglar steals a treasured heirloom, and the owner becomes depressed and sad and later dies, that’s murder too.”

Adding to the controversy, a legal adviser to the Mexican government has accused prosecutors of targeting Garcia as a legal “guinea pig” because he is Latino and an illegal immigrant.

But prosecutors say race played no role in the decision to press murder charges and that the case has already cleared several hurdles to reach trial. “A grand jury has looked at the facts of this case, and a Superior Court judge and appellate court has looked at the facts and the law in the case and concluded that we are not out of the ballpark,” Assistant Dist. Atty. John Conley said.

Prosecutor David La Bahn said his case will rely on showing that the rape hastened Ward’s death.

“The jury will be instructed that there need not be physical injury to prove the charges,” he said. “It will be up to the jury to decide.”

Before the attack, Ward was an active member of the Jehovah’s Witness church and helped manage a Stanton apartment complex, collecting rents and handling complaints.

A widow with no children, Ward was a spirited woman who tried not to let her medical conditions interfere with visits to friends, her neighbors and friends said.

Ward woke about 2:30 a.m. on May 22, 1992, to find a stranger splashing in the complex pool outside her bedroom window. Ward ventured outside to shoo the man away, but turned and ran inside to call 911 when the man came toward her.

Authorities said Garcia followed Ward inside and began attacking her. Orange County Sheriff’s deputies responding to the 911 call captured Garcia in the act, officials said.

Ward later told hospital officials she wished she had died, according to court records.

She refused to return to her apartment and moved to another home--but never regained her sense of safety, friends said. An elder at the Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall that Ward attended recalled that Ward once panicked at the sight of a male groundskeeper outside the sliding-glass door of her new home.

Garcia had lived in the same neighborhood as Ward. He worked as a dishwasher at an Orange County hotel, lived with relatives and sent most of his earnings back to his mother in Mexico, Gumlia said.

Garcia had been drinking that night--his blood-alcohol level was about 0.22, or nearly three times the legal limit--and he had sought out the cool water on a warm night. He deeply regrets that night’s turn of events, his attorney said.

“He keeps saying to me that he cannot understand how he can be charged with murder. He says ‘I never meant to hurt her, I never meant to kill her,’ ” Gumlia said, adding that he believes Garcia attacked Ward because he was intoxicated.

Garcia, who grew up in poverty and has only a second-grade education, has only one prior misdemeanor arrest for public intoxication, Gumlia said.

If convicted of murder and five sexual assault charges, Garcia, a Mexican citizen, faces life in prison with no possibility of parole.

Some legal observers say the most critical information the jury receives may have nothing to do with evidence, and everything to do with emotion and race.

“This is a far-fetched, wild theory. Who better to try it on than an illegal alien?” said attorney Ruben Salgado, a legal adviser to the Mexican Consulate in Santa Ana. “I feel personally that there is some discrimination in the way the district attorney’s office is handling this case.”

San Diego defense attorney Elisabeth Semel, past president of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, agreed. “This case involves major society issues that are polarizing our community, mainly the role of the undocumented in committing crimes.”

Another disputed issue is the cause of Ward’s death. Garcia’s attorney contends that a virulent form of cancer--that was previously misdiagnosed--was found throughout her body, causing severe swelling. Ward died shortly after the start of radiation treatment caused her kidneys to fail, according to court papers filed by the defense.

But the prosecutor contends the rape was a contributing cause of death, crushing Ward’s will to live and decreasing her ability to fight her illnesses.

“The prosecutor is charting new territory,” said Gregory Christopher Brown, assistant professor of criminal justice at Chapman University in Orange. “(What) he is banking on is the jury being caught up in the emotional side of all this, a terrified elderly woman being raped.”

UCLA law professor Peter Arenella said there is little case law on this issue.

Similar cases are based on more direct links between criminal conduct and unintentional death. Arenella cited a noted case where a robber was convicted of murder because the victim had a heart attack during the heist and died.

“In that case, it was clear that fear generated from the robbery triggered immediate, powerful stress that caused a fatal heart attack,” Arenella said. “In this case, you have an elderly woman with cancer. It certainly is a stretch.”

The case will be a tough one on both sides: Jurors will despise Garcia and his admitted rape of an elderly woman, Gumlia conceded. But the prosecution also has the daunting task of proving that the brain possesses the power to give up on life.

Among the mortality experts expected to be called during the case is Prof. David Phillips of the University of California at San Diego.

A 1993 study by Phillips documents the power of the mind in controlling life expectancy. Chinese Americans who subscribe to astrology are more likely to die during a year that is considered ill-fated for their diagnosed disease, his study found.

Phillips’ other studies have found that mortality rates among Jewish and Chinese people often drop before important occasions and rise afterward, while ill women also prolong their lives until after a critical event.

There is also a wealth of anecdotal tales about seemingly healthy spouses dying shortly after they are widowed, or people living on for one last birthday celebration.

Some defense attorneys also cited a common-sense belief that people possess the “will to live,” but said such perceptions do not belong in the courtroom.

In a legal brief, Gumlia sarcastically argued that the prosecution’s theory--taken to its extreme--means Garcia is a mass murderer since Ward’s attack and death placed life-shortening grief on her friends and relatives.

“The question of what makes the human heart break, or what makes the human spirit either resilient enough to bounce back even stronger or break is not something the criminal law was designed to answer,” said Santa Ana defense attorney William J. Kopeny.