Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Free woman who killed husband, lawyer pleads
Manslaughter case called self-defence
Sandy Chapman filed an unusual "no evidence" motion seeking an immediate dismissal of the manslaughter case against her client.
The Crown closed its case against Virginia Hernando on Tuesday afternoon after calling just three witnesses -- an identification officer who described the scene, a homicide detective who interviewed Hernando, and the woman's sister. A videotape of Hernando's statement to police was given to the judge and is considered the key piece of evidence.
Hernando, 61, claims she had no choice but to kill in self-defence. Her 62-year-old husband, Alejandro, died of a single stab wound to his heart following a September 2006 dispute in the couple's Fort Rouge home. They had been married for 37 years and had four children and three grandchildren.
"When you look at all of the evidence, there's nothing to suggest... that at any point that night she possessed that knife for any other purpose than to ward (her husband) off and make him go away," Chapman said in her closing argument Tuesday.
The Crown took a different view, saying Hernando's explanation of her actions is open to more than one potential conclusion.
Queen's Bench Justice Glenn Joyal has reserved his decision until Wednesday morning. If he agrees with Chapman, Hernando will walk free. If he doesn't, the trial will continue. Chapman would still be free to argue the Crown had failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. She could also put her client on the witness stand to testify.
In her police interview, a sobbing Hernando said she never meant to kill her husband. She described a long and difficult marriage and described daily clashes over their financial struggles, which were compounded by regularly sending money home to family members in the Philippines. Hernando said her husband would drink about half a bottle of vodka every day and become verbally and physically abusive when he was drunk.
Hernando was employed as an aide at the Riverview Health Centre. Her husband worked at a local food-processing plant. The couple had fallen behind on their taxes and were missing payments on their Morley Avenue home, court was told. She said friends would often encourage her to leave her husband, but she couldn't walk away.
On the night of the killing, Hernando said, she argued with her intoxicated husband about his desire to send money back home to the Philippines help a relative undergoing cancer treatment. She told him they didn't have the funds to help. Hernando said he began punching her and she ran to her bedroom to grab a paring knife that she hid to protect herself from him.
Hernando quickly tried to stop the bleeding from her husband's chest and called 911. A recording of her call, in which she says she acted in self-defence, was played in court Monday. Alejandro was rushed to hospital, but doctors were unable to save his life. Police found the bloody knife on the bedroom floor. Hernando later told police she often had to defend herself against his attacks.
www.mikeoncrime.com
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 17, 2009 B1
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