Juan Carlos Guadarrama, a 44-year-old man, repeatedly stabbed his estranged wife with a hunting knife and shot her with a BB gun, leaving her near death as he ran away from a Santa Ana office complex, according to the O.C. Register.
The attorney for , however, told jurors that his client was in a “downward spiral” due to the murder of his nephew and death of his father, and that the panel should “keep an open mind” about allegations that it was premeditated attack.
Guadarrama is facing charges of attempted murder with a sentencing enhancement that it was a premeditated attack and criminal threats, which is a felony. He is also facing sentencing enhancement allegations for causing great bodily injury in a domestic violence incident and personally using a deadly weapon.
Guadarrama allegedly arranged to meet his estranged wife in the 1200 block of East Dyer Road on Sept. 20, 2014. He then stabbed his victim in the the chest, neck and back repeatedly before she could get out of her car, according to Deputy District Attorney Caroline Smith. Her hands were also badly damaged when she tried to fend off the knife attack, requiring corrective surgery later. He also shot her with a pellet gun.
Guadarrama broke off his attack when his victim’s shouts drew onlookers. He then ran away from the scene. However he left behind the knife, the pellet gun and a bloody shirt that he stripped off as well his shoes, before he hopped over a wall and ran away.
The victim’s vertebrae and ribs also had multiple fractures and a pellet had to be removed from her neck, as a result of the attack by Guadarrama.
Guadarrama was able to hide out from the police until Sep. 23 of 2014, when he asked a neighbor for a ride to Tijuana, Mexicao. But that neighbor did not cooperate – leading him to threaten her. She then called the police.
The police knew they had a chance to catch the suspect. They asked the neighbor to send a text message to Guadarrama to met her. But when he showed up to the meeting the cops were waiting for him instead.
Guadarrama’s defense attorney, Jeremy Dolnick, tried to make a case that the couple “started out with a beautiful relationship.” And that Guadarrama “was sort of living this dream” as “the guy who set up a soccer league for kids and adults and was a neighborhood role model.”
However Guadarrama found out in February 2014 that his nephew had been “brutally murdered,” and then Guadarrama started drinking heavily and skipping regular hygiene to the extent that his wife would stay with others because he smelled awful.
Then when Guadarrama’s father died, it turned out that the man was not Guadarrama’s his biological father. This apparently contributed to Guadarrama’s depression.
Then Guadarrama somehow became convinced that his wife was having an affair with her sister. He tried to his phone to try to get video recordings of them together as proof.
After a while his crazy accusations led his wife to throw him out of her home.
His defense attorney argued that his client suffers from a “delusional disorder” and that the suspect is also suffering from depressive disorder and alcohol abuse.
I am not sure that the jurors are going to care about any of this given the brutal nature of the attack on his estranged wife.
