Judge OKs Graphic Evidence in Trial

Dealing a setback to accused murderer Gladis Soto, a Ventura County Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that prosecutors could show a jury gruesome photos of the victim’s mutilated body, as well the electric saw allegedly used to cut it up.

Defense attorneys argued that such evidence was highly prejudicial to their client and irrelevant to the case.

Soto, 38, is charged with murder in the Feb. 22 shooting death of her husband, Pedro Alba. The 35-year-old welder was cut up with a saw, and the remains were found burned in the Ventura River bottom.

Soto’s lawyers have admitted that she killed her husband, but they contend that it was done in self-defense after he raped her.

During the first day of pretrial motions in Soto’s trial, the defense tried to narrow the scope of the case and asked Judge Herbert Curtis to exclude all evidence of dismemberment and burning.

That evidence includes nine autopsy photographs of Alba’s severed body, including one of his head disfigured by burns. It also includes the saw allegedly used, now encased in a plexiglass box.

Defense attorney Jorge Alvarado said the dismemberment is irrelevant because it occurred after the shooting.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Patricia Murphy said it is relevant because Soto’s actions suggest she planned the shooting and then tried to cover it up.

The fact that Alba’s facial features were obliterated may be prejudicial, she said, but they also show Soto intended to make sure the body was never identified.

“Our theory,” Murphy said, “is that the defendant did this to get away with it.”

Curtis agreed and ruled that the photos, saw and other evidence of dismemberment could be shown to the jury.

“Some of these photos are difficult to look at,” the judge said. “But murder is not a pretty picture.”

In other rulings, Curtis rejected a request by the prosecution to admit death threats Soto allegedly made to her husband two months before his slaying. The judge said the statements were unreliable.

Hearings in the case are scheduled to resume today.