Wife Pleads No Contest in Husband’s Slaying

In a courtroom packed with battered women’s advocates, an Oxnard woman Tuesday pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter for shooting and killing her estranged and abusive husband.

Maria Luisa (Edna) Reyes entered the plea, which could result in a minimum of probation and a maximum sentence of 21 years in prison.

Although prosecutors originally said Reyes had appeared to have “coldbloodedly” killed Martin Reyes, Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Holmes said their decision to lower the charge from murder to voluntary manslaughter came after a close look at the history of abuse Edna Reyes had suffered at the hands of her husband.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Maeve Fox, who prosecuted the case, would not comment on the outcome. Public defender Jean Farley said she advised Reyes to take her case to trial so a jury could consider the extensive abuse and stalking she had endured from her husband.

“I don’t know if ‘pleased’ is the right word” for the outcome, Farley said after the court session.

“Given the amount of support the public defender’s office received from expert witnesses, friends of the court and doctors, we would have been able to litigate this case very inexpensively for Ms. Reyes.”

The case will now go directly to Superior Court for an Aug. 27 sentencing hearing.

Holmes would not comment on any sentencing recommendation, saying prosecutors will wait until the probation report is filed before they make any decisions.

Farley said she will ask for probation for the Oxnard woman, who came to court dressed in a gray suit rather than the blue prison garb she wore at her arraignment two weeks ago.

Reyes, whose ankles were handcuffed throughout the hearing, cried when questioned by Fox about whether she understood her rights. Farley said the 29-year-old woman, who had been married to Martin Reyes for 12 years, was extremely depressed and at one point had been placed under a suicide watch in jail.

Battered women’s advocates, supporters of Edna Reyes and her mother, Maria Valerio Paredes, sat quietly in the courtroom during the hourlong hearing. Some of the women took the morning off from work to appear at the hearing, and others traveled from as far as Los Angeles County to attend the session.

Despite Edna Reyes’ reluctance to be the focus of media and activists’ attention, her case has mobilized battered women’s groups throughout Southern California. Supporters say her situation is an example of what can happen to battered women who feel the system has failed to protect them.

“My hope is that the judge will look at all the circumstances,” said Barbara Marquez O’Neill of Interface Children and Family Services, a county children and battered women’s support group. “Even though [Martin Reyes] at that moment may not have been threatening her, she had done everything she could do within the system and there was still a reason for her to feel in danger. We are going to give her all the support she wants.”

Edna Reyes was initially charged with murder after shooting Martin Reyes in front of two Oxnard police officers and her 11-year-old son July 5. The officers had responded to a domestic dispute call made by neighbors at her Oxnard apartment building. As Edna Reyes was preparing to leave her home with her children, she pulled out a revolver from her purse and shot her husband twice in the chest, police said.

Edna Reyes had filed a restraining order against her husband, but did not know it had expired a few weeks before he showed up at her apartment.

According to Oakland police, Martin Reyes was jailed in 1989 for spousal abuse, and complaints had been filed against him for abusing the couple’s children.

Edna Reyes had moved to Mexico in January of this year to escape her husband, who she was in the process of divorcing, Jean Farley said. But he followed her to Mexico and eventually back to California.

At the hearing, Reyes made no statements, simply agreeing to the terms of the plea through the help of a Spanish interpreter.

Farley said Reyes made the decision to plead no contest with the hope that she could be released from jail sooner and be reunited with her four children, ages 3 to 11.

By pleading no contest, Reyes’ case will move quicker through the court system than if she were to go to trial, Farley said.

Battered women’s advocates who attended the hearing said they intend to keep close tabs on any developments in the case and hope for leniency in her sentencing.

“Our work is not done yet,” said Tammy Bruce, president of the Women’s Progress Alliance, a nonprofit women’s advocacy group. “This [case] is about all of us. It is not about a vacuum in that courtroom, and justice is about recognizing the environment [Edna Reyes was placed in]. The system has failed her several times before. We are here to see that it does not fail her again.”

Five representatives from the Los Angeles-based alliance--including Denise Brown, Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister--came to the hearing. Later in the afternoon, they met with a top prosecutor to discuss the case.

In addition to the alliance members, a dozen women from the Farmworker Women’s Leadership Project took the day off work to show their support for Edna Reyes, who at one point had worked in the fields of Ventura.

Mily Trevino-Sauceda, president of the group, said she supported Edna Reyes’ decision to plead no contest but would have liked to see the case go to trial.

“During the trial, she could learn that [even] if she feels guilty, there is justification for what happened,” Trevino-Sauceda said. “But that was her decision. Whatever she thinks is best, we will be supportive.”

Farley said Reyes has had a hard time coping with her situation and has been receiving counseling while in jail. Dr. Sandra Baca, a Los Angeles-based psychologist who has been giving a series of tests to Reyes, said the young woman has been taking medication to combat her extreme depression.

“All of the tests are showing signs indicative of a woman who has been in a prolonged battering situation,” Baca said. “She is hypervigilant, suspicious . . . and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He was always telling her, ‘I am going to come back and get you.’ ”

Nonetheless, Baca said the decision to reduce the charge was a victory for battered women.

“Prosecutors truly recognized that this was a victim,” Baca said. “If you go in [to state prison] and interview women who killed their husbands, they are in there for 25 years to life.”