Murder Trial Hinges on Self-Defense Argument

Gladis Soto fatally shot her husband as he slept on Feb 22. No one disputes that. She then cut him up with an electric saw to get rid of the body. No one disputes that either.

The central issue in this 38-year-old Ventura homemaker’s trial is whether her actions constitute murder or self-defense.

Starting this week, Soto’s two attorneys will try to show that she was a battered wife who lashed out after 15 years of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her husband, Pedro Alba.

Soto is accused of firing one shot from a .25-caliber handgun into the 35-year-old welder, then dragging his body to a garage where she removed the head, legs and arms and stuffed them in plastic garbage bags.

She was arrested after a homeless man reported seeing a woman set fire to trash bags on the Ventura River bottom. Authorities identified the body through fingerprints.

Soto, a mother of six, faces 25 years to life in prison if found guilty of murder. She could get an additional 25 years to life for using a gun.

Her trial in Ventura County Superior Court is expected to last about a month.

Defense attorneys plan to argue that Soto was beaten and raped by her husband the night of the slaying. They contend that she suffered similar abuse during the course of her marriage and in a desperate moment made sure he would never hurt her again.

“Gladis could not take it any longer,” co-counsel Kay Duffy wrote in an unsuccessful motion to reduce the charge. “She had to stop her husband who had once again violated the sanctity of her body by forcing her into another sexual act against her will. And that is what she did.”

The so-called battered-woman’s defense could be a tough sell, however.

About 80% of the women charged in such cases are convicted, according to statistics kept by the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women. The Philadelphia-based agency provides assistance to lawyers representing women in cases like Soto’s.

“We still have little understanding or sympathy for women who are abused by intimate partners,” said director Sue Osthoff. “I think there is still this idea of ‘why didn’t she just leave?’

“I think one of the more difficult things for people to understand is that women can be in danger even when there is a lull in the violence,” Osthoff said.

In Ventura County, the battered-woman defense has been used with limited success.

Oxnard teen Gabriela Hernandez tried it during her 1997 murder trial. Hernandez and her husband, Rogelio, were both charged in the June 22, 1996, killing of their 2-year-old daughter, Joselin. The 18-year-old mother maintained that she was unable to prevent her spouse from beating the toddler to death because she was abused and fearful. The jury found both parents guilty.

Oxnard farm worker Edna Reyes, who fatally shot her abusive husband on July 5, 1996, used a battered-woman’s defense during her sentencing hearing the same year. Reyes, now 32, had pleaded guilty to one count of voluntary manslaughter and is serving six years in state prison.

Prosecution Says Abuse Not an Excuse

At the time of sentencing, Superior Court Judge Vincent J. O’Neill Jr. said he gave strong consideration to Reyes’ lack of a prior criminal record, her statements of remorse and evidence that she suffered from battered-woman’s syndrome.

But the fact that she shot her husband, Martin Reyes, in front of two Oxnard police officers when she was not in imminent danger was a strong factor for the judge as well.

Soto and Reyes share similar histories of spousal abuse.

But records show that both reported domestic violence to police, only to see it continue. Both expressed fear of losing their children if they separated from their spouses. Reyes’ husband was drunk the night she killed him. Soto told police her spouse was a cocaine user.

Shortly before the slayings, each woman purchased a gun on the streets of their neighborhoods.

In Reyes’ case, prosecutors reduced the charge from murder to voluntary manslaughter after considering the long history of abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband.

But prosecutors have offered no such break to Soto.

They maintain that she deliberately killed her husband--not because she was fearful, but because she was angry and jealous over Alba’s relationship with another woman.

Ultimately, prosecutors say, Soto did not have a right to intentionally kill her husband, even if she was battered by him.

“The defense evidence may explain why she did what she did, but it doesn’t excuse it legally,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Patricia Murphy said after Soto was ordered to stand trial.

According to relatives, Soto and Alba seemed very much in love when they began dating more than a decade ago in Mexico. They moved to Los Angeles, Oxnard and then Ventura. Alba worked as a welder, and for a while Soto took classes at Oxnard College. She wanted to become a kindergarten teacher.

‘I Loved Him Very Much’

But relatives say the couple’s love soured. He started seeing other women. She got angry. He hit her.

Court records show that Alba was arrested for striking his wife in 1996 and shoving her in 1997. After the last incident, Soto sought a restraining order.

According to court testimony, the couple split up and got back together several times. Meanwhile, Alba’s relatives say that Soto remained jealous of other women.

At the time of the slaying, she was facing a felony assault charge for allegedly ramming her car into her husband’s van while his girlfriend was inside.

A jury will hear evidence on that count when testimony gets underway this month.

Police officers, relatives and friends of the couple are expected to take the stand during the trial. Soto’s children may also be called. But the key testimony may come from two expert witnesses.

A clinical psychologist hired by the defense testified at a preliminary hearing that Soto was suffering from battered-woman’s syndrome at the time of the slaying. Dr. Nancy Kaser-Boyd said Soto had been severely abused and was having flashbacks of prior rapes at the time she pulled the trigger.

An expert for the prosecution has since interviewed Soto and is expected to offer testimony on her mental condition.

Defense attorney Jorge Alvarado said he hopes the jury will be open-minded in considering evidence of his client’s state of mind.

“The sweetest of all puppies, you keep kicking it long enough and it will bite back,” he said.

Before testimony gets underway, attorneys plan to argue a series of pretrial motions that could shape the scope of the trial.

Soto was arrested Feb. 23--the day after her husband’s slaying. She tearfully confessed to the killing during an interview with a Ventura police detective.

“I didn’t want to do it!” she cried, according to a transcript of the interview. “I loved him very much.”

Defense Challenges Legality of Confession

Under prodding by Det. Ralph Martinez, Soto admitted shooting her husband as he slept in the bedroom of their Ventura apartment. Earlier in the interview, she talked to Martinez about the abuse and humiliation she suffered.

“He would get home and rape me,” she said. “He would use me whenever he wanted. . . . I didn’t want to be with him anymore.”

Although defense attorneys have not disputed that their client shot Alba, they are now asking a judge to exclude the statements from the trial. They contend that the confession was coerced and that Martinez denied Soto her right to talk to an attorney.

Prosecutors say the confession was legally obtained and should be admitted as evidence.

Meanwhile, prosecutors are pushing to have the statements about Soto’s alleged threats to her husband and graphic autopsy photos shown to jurors. They also want to admit the electric saw Soto used to cut up her husband. Defense attorneys have objected.

“What happened after the shooting is not relevant,” Alvarado said. “There is no question she did the shooting. The real question is why.”

Soto remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail. After the murder trial, she is scheduled to stand trial on a single count of welfare fraud for allegedly stealing about $48,000 in government aid for her children.