Witness Says Rape Changed Victim, 79 : Trial: In unusual tactic, prosecutors are charging defendant with murder because woman lost her will to live and died a month after the attack.

Before she was raped in her own home, 79-year-old Mary Ward was a fun-loving, “feisty” woman and devout Jehovah’s Witness who spoke with a twang and entertained friends with tales about growing up in the South.

“She was not the same person after it happened,” said Ward’s friend, Marcheta Murphy. Before the attack “she was a card, she was always laughing. After, she cried a lot. She would just sit there and stare at nothing.”

Murphy was the first witness to testify Wednesday in the murder trial of Jose Alonso Garcia, 20, of Stanton, who is accused of raping Ward in May, 1992, and causing her death one month later.

But in an unusual twist, prosecutors have not linked Ward’s physical injuries to her death. Instead, prosecutors allege that Garcia murdered Ward by destroying her “will to live.”

Defense attorneys told the jury that Ward died from undiagnosed lung cancer and other complications. But Deputy Dist. Atty. David La Bahn told jurors that the rape contributed to the widow’s death.

“She was overwhelmed by shame, embarrassment and the wish that she had died with her husband,” La Bahn said. “There’s not much more you can do to an elderly woman than rape her in her own home. . . . Attacking her and doing what he did, the defendant killed her.”

While she had some health problems and walked with a cane, Ward refused to let her medical conditions slow her down before the attack, Murphy testified, adding that Ward’s attitude changed after the rape.

“She was an emotional wreck, she was a real mess,” Murphy said. “She would just say, ‘I’m not going to make it.’ ”

The prosecutor told jurors that his case will rely on medical evidence as well as testimony by some of the country’s most renowned experts on death and dying.

Some critics say the case could set a dangerous precedent because it explores areas normally left outside the courtroom, such as spiritual issues and the brain’s role in accelerating death.

It is a theory that Deputy Public Defender Leonard Gumlia has denounced as “voodoo.”

Santa Ana defense attorney Ruben Salgado, a legal adviser to the Mexican government, has said outside of court that prosecutors are testing the novel legal theory on Garcia because he is an illegal immigrant. Prosecutors deny the allegation.

At the time of the attack, Ward was an assistant manager at the Stanton apartment complex where she had lived for more than 20 years. She awoke about 2:30 a.m. on May 22, 1992, to find Garcia splashing in the complex pool and went outside to order him away.

Ward returned to her apartment and dialed 911. Garcia followed and began attacking her, ultimately tearing the phone from the wall, choking her with the cord and holding her at knifepoint, La Bahn said.

As La Bahn played the chilling 911 tape, many jurors appeared uncomfortable listening to Ward’s recorded screams.

“Please! help! He’s trying to choke me . . . hurry! Get out of here! Get out of here!” Ward is heard yelling. “He’s on me! Get out of here! He’s trying to rape me! Please! Help!” Ward is heard crying before the line goes dead.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies responding to the 911 call had to pull Garcia off Ward, La Bahn said. Garcia, who was drunk, later told authorities that Ward invited him to have sex.

“‘I’m a man and we can’t, we can’t hold back when a woman wants you,”’ La Bahn quoted Garcia as saying.

Garcia has admitted raping Ward, but is contesting the murder charge and four other sexual assault charges. If convicted, he faces life in prison without parole.

In his opening statement, the defense attorney told jurors that Ward was eager to recover with the support of her friends and fellow churchgoers.

“This was a remarkable woman,” Gumlia said. “This was not a quitter as portrayed by the prosecution.”

Gumlia told jurors that doctors who failed to detect Ward’s cancer made her condition worse by not treating it properly, ultimately causing kidney failure, body rashes, severe swelling and “weeping”--a process in which backed up bodily fluids are released through the skin.

Gumlia scoffed at doctors who say the symptoms were caused by the mind.

“That is not a loss of a will to live,” Gumlia said.