Barking Dogs Foiled Wife’s Murder Plot, Police Say

But for the barking dogs, police said, Nicole Garza might have masterminded the perfect crime: the murder of her husband.

When the 32-year-old lawyer asked her husband to fetch some ice cream from their Sylmar garage last Wednesday night, she thought she was sending him to his death.

Waiting there was Nicole Garza’s sister, Lynette LaFontaine-Trujillo, armed with a gun and a disguise provided by Garza, prosecutors and police alleged Tuesday. She had let herself in with a key that Nicole Garza gave her, following instructions in a note that Nicole Garza composed on her computer, which included the prediction that the two were about to become financially free.

But when the Garzas’ three dogs barked, Jose Garza grabbed a .45-caliber pistol as a precaution. When he entered the garage, LaFontaine-Trujillo--who had probably never before fired a weapon--shot three times but missed. Garza fired back, shooting her in the abdomen.

Garza, 50, a veteran city prosecutor and the second in command at the city attorney’s San Fernando office, survived unscathed--but distraught. He did not know, until much later during a police interview, that the intruder he shot was his sister-in-law.

That extraordinary sequence of events emerged Tuesday in interviews with police and prosecutors expanding on the murder and conspiracy charges filed Tuesday against Nicole Garza and LaFontaine-Trujillo. If convicted, the red-haired sisters could face life in prison.

Nicole Garza appeared briefly in San Fernando Municipal Court on Tuesday, but her case was postponed for a week while officials investigate whether she qualifies for free legal counsel.

“They’re both attorneys, but our preliminary investigation indicates they have no money on hand to hire an attorney,” said Deputy Public Defender William D. Weiss.

LaFontaine-Trujillo, 34, remained in critical condition at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, where she was being guarded by police.