Alleged Plot Has Tragic Results for Families

They are seven children without mothers.

One believes she is away at work. Another is angry, thinking his mother left him. The oldest, age 10, calls his grandmother and two great-aunts upon waking and before going to bed--just to be sure they’re still there.

They are the children of two sisters caught in an alleged murder-for-profit plot aimed at one’s husband, a prosecutor. The botched scheme left one sister dead, shot by the intended victim, and the other in jail.

“How do you explain to a child that his mother’s dead, killed by his uncle, and that his aunt’s in jail?” said Jillian Segal, a great-aunt. “It’s baffling.”

Three of the children, ages 18 months to 4 years, are the offspring of Nicole Garza, a Woodland Hills lawyer who police say hatched the bizarre plan to kill her husband, veteran Deputy City Atty. Jose Garza. The other four, ages 2 1/2 to 10, are the children of Lynette LaFontaine-Trujillo, who police allege tried to kill Jose Garza but who was shot by him instead.

Nicole Garza remains in Sybil Brand Institute for Women, charged with her sister’s murder, conspiracy and attempted premeditated murder. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges and refuses to be interviewed.

The children, meanwhile, are living with their fathers. Segal and another great-aunt have emerged as the de facto mothers for LaFontaine-Trujillo’s sons and remain strong links between the broken families. Known to the children as Aunt Jillian and Aunt April, they shuttle between the children’s homes, attend school music recitals, plan birthday parties, buy winter clothes.

And now, they are planning for Christmas. They know it won’t be easy.

“This is a horror beyond horrors,” said Segal. “We are determined that these children are going to have a decent life and make something of themselves.”

But even the adults cannot comprehend the bizarre events that have drastically altered all their lives.

“I don’t understand it,” Segal said. “But I know we will never recover.”

It was Sept. 25, Nicole and Jose Garza’s eldest daughter’s fourth birthday, when Nicole Garza sent her husband to the garage to fetch some ice cream. But the dogs began barking, and Jose Garza, a gun enthusiast, picked up a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol and confronted a gun-toting intruder.

It was LaFontaine-Trujillo, police say, wearing a dark sweatshirt, a black wig covering her red hair and goggle-like sunglasses. She shot at Garza but missed. He returned fire rapidly, hitting the dark figure in the shadows as well as the water heater and the refrigerator, and piercing the wall of his baby son’s room, according to police.

Two days later, police arrested Nicole Garza.

Shredded notes had been found inside LaFontaine-Trujillo’s Ford Explorer linking the two to the conspiracy, police said. They were written by Nicole Garza to lure her sister into the scheme with promises of financial security and freedom, police and prosecutors said.

“1 1/2 minutes of terror and a 360 degree turn around in your life,” the note said. “I’m sure the list can go on and on what a tremendous domino effect your action will have to better the lives of so many people.”

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Shot in the upper body, LaFontaine-Trujillo was in critical condition for 13 days at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center before she died. She was guarded by police. Only her aunts were allowed into the room.

“In a million years I couldn’t believe she had been shot,” Segal said, adding that LaFontaine-Trujillo’s sons wanted to know why they couldn’t visit their mother in the hospital.

The red-headed sisters had been close since childhood. Former classmates and their aunt say the two were smart and popular. Known as “Nikki” and “Gogi,” they attended Monroe High School, with Lynette graduating in 1979 and Nicole two years later.

Lynette LaFontaine-Trujillo, nicknamed “Gogi” by her brother, was artistic and a song-leader. She was voted by her senior class as both the “girl with the longest hair” and “forever on a diet.”

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But she fought her own demons well into adulthood, constantly struggling with bulimia, according to friends and relatives. She married Miguel Trujillo and the couple had three sons. They divorced five years ago, and she had a son with a boyfriend in 1994.

For years, LaFontaine-Trujillo worked two waitressing jobs at San Fernando Valley restaurants, living with her mother in a Sherman Oaks apartment. She saw her children frequently, even though they lived with their fathers. A neighbor recalled seeing her in the fall with her sons in the apartment complex pool, laughing and playing in the water.

“She was a really sweet person,” Segal said. “I think she had no idea how many people loved her.”

Nicole Garza was academically inclined and bored by schoolwork she could complete without really trying, relatives and former classmates said. At 3, relatives recall, Nicole was smart, even lawyerly.

Segal recalled Nicole’s mother once asking her if she had slammed a door.

“ ‘Coming in or going out?’ ” Segal quoted the youngster as responding.

Nicole attended Glendale University College of Law, graduated in 1990 and was admitted to the bar that year. She was married briefly at 19, had no children and was divorced.

She married Jose Garza after she represented him in his divorce in 1992, and most recently worked at a Ventura Boulevard law firm in Woodland Hills.

She saw her sister, aunts and mother frequently, and often visited Garza’s mother, who was hospitalized and remains so, relatives said. She was busy, working full time and running her household.

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During one visit several months ago, Segal recalled that the relatives were planning for Christmas.

It was clear that the clan would meet at the Garzas’ Sylmar home.

“Everyone planned out what they would bring--all their favorite recipes handed down from the family,” Segal said. “Nicole said my husband made this great stuffing.”

The holiday, however, will be decidedly different.

The aunts will probably go to the Garza home on Christmas Eve and spend Christmas Day with LaFontaine-Trujillo’s boys.

Nicole Garza’s lawyer, public defender Marie Girolamo, says her client probably won’t see her children. Girolamo is seeking a gag order on all participants and closed court proceedings. A hearing is scheduled for January.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Dale E. Cutler said the case is solid and that “nothing new or shocking” will emerge in court.

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Jose Garza, a private man who shuns the limelight even when he wins his own cases, is aiding authorities. Cutler said he will be a key witness.

“He’s cooperating and he’s coping,” Cutler said. “He’s caring for his children.”

Although none of the fathers agreed to be interviewed, Segal said they are struggling to maintain a normal life for their children.

“We’re very lucky,” Segal said. “These are excellent fathers. The children are their whole lives.”

Believing that it will help heal them, Segal encourages LaFontaine-Trujillo’s boys to talk about their mother. Last weekend, she took them to place flowers on her grave on what would have been her 35th birthday.

“This is a lot for them [the children] to overcome,” said Segal. “I’m not sure how this will ever repair itself--for any of us.”