An alleged killer propped up his wife’s dead body on the couch for her children opening Christmas presents, a court heard.
William Wallace is accused of killing Za’Zell Preston on 24 December 2011, before putting her in the living room the next day with sunglasses on and telling their three children that “Mummy ruined Christmas.”
Prosecutors say that the couple had gone to a holiday party on Christmas Eve in Anaheim, California, before returning to the apartment they shared with the youngsters.
Neighbours told investigators they had heard arguing, and one said that Wallace was seen moving a body by an apartment gate.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Heather Brown told jurors that Wallace, 39, later told a family member that “we were drinking and during the argument I tossed her around a bit.”
Ms Brown told the court that Ms Preston, 26, tried to run but Wallace caught her and brought her back into the apartment.
The following day he dragged her body from the bedroom into the living room where he placed her on the couch and told the children: “Mommy ruined Christmas, she got drunk and ruined Christmas.”
“This Christmas story does not have a happy ending, and unfortunately this is not just a story, it is real life,” said Ms Brown.
Wallace’s attorney, Heather Moorhead, denied that her client was responsible for his wife’s death and told jurors that Ms Preston was drunk and fell into a glass table.
“Mr. Wallace is being accused of something that is not his fault,” said Ms Moorhead.
And she claimed that Ms Preston hit her head as Wallace moved her to a bath to clean her wounds from the fall.
Relatives of Ms Preston told investigators that Wallace had threatened to kill her on a number of occasions, the court heard.
Police say they found blood throughout the apartment, along with holes punched in walls and a door off its hinges.
Ms Preston was still slumped on the couch when paramedics arrived at the apartment after they were called.
Several months before her death Ms Preston had enrolled in college classes to become a domestic-violence counsellor.
Wallace, who had already served an earlier prison sentence for beating his wife, faces between 25 years to life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder.
He has been in prison since his 25 December 2011 arrest while awaiting trial.
