Priest Testifies Soto Told Him of Abuse

A month before she fatally shot and dismembered her husband, defendant Gladis Soto sought help from a Catholic priest who advised her to leave her spouse, Father David Velasquez testified Friday.

“She told me he abused her physically, verbally and psychologically,” Velasquez told jurors. “She told me that he pushed her, that sometimes he would strike her. He would tell her as a woman she was worthless, that she was ugly.”

An associate pastor at the San Buenaventura Mission, Velasquez said he met with Soto on Jan. 19--a month before Soto shot her husband, Pedro Alba, as he slept in their Ventura apartment.

Soto, who has admitted to the killing, went on to cut off Alba’s arms, legs and head and burn them on the Ventura River bed.

Prosecutors contend that the 38-year-old homemaker is guilty of first-degree murder and was motivated by jealousy over her husband’s relationship with another woman.

But defense attorneys maintain Soto was a battered spouse who endured years of abuse at the hands of Alba, 35, before lashing out Feb. 20 with a loaded gun.

Ending the fourth week of trial testimony, defense attorneys called Velasquez to discuss his meeting with Soto.

The priest told jurors that Soto called the mission to set up a meeting to discuss her marriage. When she showed up, Soto looked sad and “very tense,” Velasquez said.

Soto said her husband abused her, came home drunk and forced her to have sex, Velasquez said. She admitted crashing a car into her husband’s van because she was upset, he said.

Soto also told Velasquez “she was getting to a limit” and needed advice on her relationship, he testified. The priest said he gave Soto several options, including a separation and marriage counseling.

The priest clarified for jurors that it was not the church’s position that Soto divorce her husband, but that she separate from a relationship that “was not good.”

Soto’s trial is scheduled to resume Monday in Ventura County Superior Court with testimony from an expert in battered women’s syndrome.