Family Quarrel Leaves Couple Shot to Death and Teenage Son Wounded

A heart-shaped welcome sign still hangs on the screen door at the West Covina home of Carlos Alejandro Balotta and his wife Maria, but the family had begun to fall apart weeks ago.

Maria Balotta had moved out. Her husband told friends that he would be getting a divorce. And Wednesday night, the couple quarreled late into the night. By midnight, both were dead.

Sheriff’s deputies say they think Alejandro Balotta shot his wife and then struggled with their 14-year-old son, Tito, over the gun. The father was shot to death in that struggle, and Tito was wounded.

The couple’s other two children, ages 16 and 7, were unharmed, authorities said.

“There are still a lot of questions about what happened,” said Sgt. Vanette Ford, a sheriff’s spokeswoman.

The couple had been married for 18 years. Maria Hildebrandt Balotta, 35, had offered day care in her home until about a month ago, neighbors said, when she took a full-time job outside. Alejandro Balotta, 46, a native of the Buenos Aires area of Argentina, had worked at the Spanish-language daily newspaper La Opinion since 1988. He started by translating wire service stories from English to Spanish and became state news editor in December 1996.

“We are very saddened,” said Miguel Medina, a spokesman for the newspaper. “We cover stories like this, but you never think this is going to happen inside the media outlet.”

Publisher Jose Lozano announced the news to the staff by e-mail Thursday morning. “La Opinion will do everything possible to support Mr. Balotta’s three children,” the newspaper said in a statement.

The Balottas bought a one-story, light brown house on Addleman Avenue in March 1999. It seemed idyllic: The home has three trees in front and a trampoline that the neighborhood children like to use in back.

Their next-door neighbor, Maria Mendez, said Alejandro Balotta told her about his separation and impending divorce three weeks ago. He seemed hurt, she said, but not angry.

Otherwise there were few outward signs of trouble. Neighbors said they could not recall any disturbances at the house. Clair Chang, a high school classmate of Tito at Rowland High School in Rowland Heights, said the avid soccer player seemed no different in recent weeks.

Medina, the La Opinion spokesman, said Alejandro Balotta had been at work this week and had appeared, as always, a “happy, supportive” co-worker.

But at 10:30 Wednesday night, one neighbor said, she heard screams from the Balotta house. At 10:58 p.m., Tito Balotta called the Walnut sheriff’s station “and told us his parents had been shot,” said a sheriff’s spokeswoman.

Officials at Citrus Valley Medical Center declined to disclose the teenager’s condition Thursday, citing the wishes of the extended family.