Abused Wife Convicted of First-Degree Murder

VENTURA COUNTY — Gladis Soto, the 38-year-old abused spouse who shot her husband before dismembering him and dumping his remains in the Ventura River, was found guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder.

It took jurors less than three days of deliberation to conclude that Soto planned and carried out the Feb. 20 killing of her husband, 35-year-old Pedro Alba, as he slept in the couple’s Ventura apartment.

Soto faces 50 years to life in prison, but two other findings by the jury could add time to her sentence, prosecutors said.

Use of a gun to commit the crime carries an added penalty of 25 years to life. Soto was also found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon for ramming the car of her husband’s girlfriend. This could add two more years to her sentence. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 21.

Soto admitted killing Alba. But in five weeks of testimony punctuated by grisly autopsy images and stories of abuse and extramarital affairs, jurors were asked to consider the motive for the slaying, which required weighing conflicting versions of events.

Lawyers for the mother of five portrayed her as a tortured soul, scarred by sexual assault as a child and trapped in an often violent marriage to a man who flaunted his affairs. Years of abuse led Soto to snap, they said.

Soto shot Alba in the head as he slept after he allegedly raped her. She cut his body into pieces in the garage using a table saw and was arrested after a transient spotted her setting fire to bags of her husband’s remains, which had been tossed into the river bottom.