Trial begins for Chino Hills man accused of strangling wife
In two days on the witness stand this week, Oscar Gonzalez's wife described in excruciating detail a nighttime attack by her estranged husband that nearly resulted in her death.
At about 2 a.m. on Feb. 17, 2006, Maria del Rosario Gonzalez was driving home from her job at a Chino factory when in her rear-view mirror she saw a figure in the back seat of her car, she testified Monday in West Valley Superior Court.
It was Oscar Gonzalez, now 46, her husband of more than 20 years who she had separated from two years earlier.
After she pleaded with him unsuccessfully to leave her car, Oscar Gonzalez took out a rope, wrapped it around her neck and tightened it, she testified.
She lost consciousness and nearly died. She was cut free of the rope and revived by a Chino police officer who saw the woman's car run a stop sign and found the woman unresponsive in the passenger seat.
Oscar Gonzalez's trial for attempted murder started Monday in West Valley Superior Court with opening statements from the prosecutor and Gonzalez's defense attorney.
His public defender, Robert Von Schlichting, said his client was despondent when his wife said she was leaving him in late 2003.
"To him it was a knife in the heart," Von Schlichting said.
Oscar Gonzalez subsequently deteriorated mentally and physically. "This is what triggered his eventual breakdown," Von Schlichting said.
The night he hid in his wife's car and wrapped a rope around her neck he only wanted to scare her, not kill her, Von Schlichting said.
The rope became entangled in the woman's hair and tightened without Oscar Gonzalez intending to tighten it, Von Schlichting said.
Maria del Rosario Gonzalez said during testimony that she met her husband when she was 16 years old in the Mexican state of Jalisco where they both were raised.
The two married and and had one daughter in Mexico before moving to the United States and settling in Chino Hills. A second daughter was born after they relocated.
Maria del Rosario Gonzalez said that after she told her husband she wanted a divorce, he threatened to kill her five times, even wrapping a rope around her neck at one point -- in jest, he told her.
She moved into her brother's home in Fontana and tried to cut ties with her husband. She never told him where she worked because she feared he would confront her there, she testified.
She said never called the police about the threats because she feared he would kill her if she did so.
She also said that her husband suggested that they both take out life-insurance policies to benefit their daughters, then kill themselves.
During her two days of testimony, Maria del Rosario Gonzalez cried frequently and appeared to shake in fear. She and her husband were both assisted by Spanish-language translators.
The night of the attack, Oscar Gonzalez apparently hid in the trunk of his wife's car and waited for her shift to end.
After the car started moving, Maria del Rosario Gonzalez said she saw her husband emerge from the trunk through an opening behind the back seat that connects the trunk to the main cab.
He said he wanted to talk to her, but she refused. He refused her demands to leave the car before the attack commenced.
In her opening statement, Deputy District Attorney Michele Daly said Oscar Gonzalez admitted to police the morning of the attack that he tried to kill his wife.
"OK. I tried to kill her. Call 9-1-1," Gonzalez told police, according to Daly.
During court proceedings Tuesday, who Chino police officers who were present when the attack was discovered also testified.
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