Trial under way for Phillips Ranch woman who killed husband

POMONA -- A Phillips Ranch woman was driven by jealousy to shoot and kill her husband last year, after she learned he was cheating on her with a college student half his age, jurors heard today in the wife's trial.

Prosecutors accuse Adrienne Davidson, 47, of planning for several weeks, then shooting Ezra Davidson in the head as he slept on Jan. 1, 2009.

The wife had recently learned that her husband was seeing a USC student. He was paying her tuition and providing her other financial support, according to testimony from the couple's 22-year-old daughter.

Today was the first day of testimony in Davidson's murder trial in Pomona Superior Court.

Adrienne Davidson's attorney, Winston McKesson, said the woman should be convicted of manslaughter, not murder, because her act came after years of emotional and physical abuse at the hand of her husband.

The shooting was done in the "heat of passion," McKesson said.

After she shot and killed her husband, Adrienne Davidson confessed to police.

Jurors watched a half-hour video today of an emotional conversation between Adrienne Davidson and her daughter after the shooting, when the daughter visited her mother at the Pomona City Jail.

During the visit, Adrienne Davidson said her husband "just broke my heart."

Jessica Davidson, the couple's daughter, testified that she urged her mother to contact a divorce attorney after the family learned of Ezra Davidson's affair.

In response, Adrienne Davidson told her daughter she would "take care if it" on Jan. 1. She didn't elaborate about what she meant by the vague statement, Jessica Davidson testified.

The family learned that Ezra Davidson had purchased a car for his mistress, while his daughter was driving a car that she said she felt unsafe in.

"I was struggling" financially, the daughter testified.

Before his death, Ezra Davidson was staying many nights in a condo in downtown Los Angeles. He claimed he stayed there because it more easily accommodated his work schedule, his daughter testified.

Ezra Davidson was a well-known online media entrepreneur who co-founded a online video company called SyncCast.

Jessica Davidson testified that she saw her father abuse her mother once, when she was 10 or 11 years old and the family lived in Austria.

She and her mother were sitting together in an upstairs family room, and her father came into the room yelling, the daughter testified.

Ezra Davidson grabbed his wife "and dragged her down two flights of stairs," the daughter testified.

Jessica Davidson said the attack was prompted by her mother cutting holes in Ezra Davidson's shirts after she discovered he was having an affair with a stripper.