Man killed wife, propped body on sofa so she could ‘watch’ kids open Christmas presents: prosecutor
A man propped his dead wife on the sofa, stuck sunglasses on her face and had their children open Christmas presents in front of her body, prosecutors said Monday.
William Wallace of Anaheim, Calif., allegedly murdered his wife on Christmas Eve in 2011, then tried to pretend she had fallen into a glass table and shattered it. He told the kids that their mother had gotten drunk and ruined Christmas.
Za’Zell Preston, 26, had been studying to become a domestic violence counselor. She and her husband had gone to a neighbor’s Christmas Eve party that fateful evening, and argued. He had already done time for beating her in the past, The Orange County Register reported.
Wallace, now 39, “did what he always did, expecting (Preston) to survive like she always did,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Heather Brown told the court, according to The Register.
But that didn’t happen.
The next day, he dragged her body from the bedroom to the living room, arranged her body and told the children, “Mommy ruined Christmas, she got drunk and ruined Christmas,” according to The Register.
Paramedics arrived to find her slumped over on the couch, and blood throughout the apartment.
Preston left a newborn son and two daughters, who were then 3 and 8 years old.
Wallace faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder, The Register said. He has already been jailed on $1 million bond since his wife’s death 10 years ago, The Register said.
While prosecutors alleged the pair had fought and he had killed her, Wallace’s defense had a different take.
“Mr. Wallace is being accused of something that is not his fault,” his attorney Heather Moorhead told jurors, according to The Register. “You will hear about a relationship that was full of arguing and yelling, but also a lot of love.”
