Prosecutors in a Santa Ana courtroom told jurors on Tuesday that Michelle Gutierrez stabbed her husband to death on his birthday while he slept in bed and that his screams were heard by their two children.
The gruesome scene reportedly played out in Jan. 2021 at the couple’s Santa Ana home in the 1000 block of West Bishop Street at around 9:30 a.m., The Orange County Register reported at the time.
Police arrived to find the then 32-year-old woman outside the home with serious knife wounds to the chest and she was rushed to the hospital.
Inside the home, officers with the Santa Ana Police Department found a bloody scene, her husband, 38-year-old Cesar Reyes Zuna brutally stabbed to death, including wounds in the neck and back, in what was initially suspected of being an attempted murder-suicide, according to The Register.
During her opening statement, Sr. Asst. Orange County District Attorney Susan Price said on the morning of Jan. 21, 2021, Gutierrez went to the kitchen and grabbed two knives. She’s then accused of entering the couple’s bedroom, locking the door behind her and repeatedly stabbing Zuna.
The kids, ages 9 and 10, heard their father’s screams and reportedly tried to get into their parents’ room, kicking and hitting the locked door before eventually fleeing to a relative’s home nearby, the O.C. outlet reported.
Price told jurors that the couple’s marriage had been “fractured” ahead of the killing and that Gutierrez felt desperate, believing she’d lose her children and that “She didn’t know what else to do.”
Gutierrez’s attorney, O.C. Public Defender Jazmine Torres, countered, telling jurors that the then 32-year-old’s mental health was spiraling because of the side effects of medication she was taking for epileptic seizures.
It was at the height of the pandemic, Torres noted, saying Gutierrez lacked health insurance and struggled to get medical attention due to pandemic-related restrictions.
“All she was trying to do was get help,” The Register reported Torres told the jury. “She became paranoid. She began to think people were following her, that her phone was being tapped, that Cesar was going to kill her.”
