A California man who killed his wife allegedly propped her body up on a sofa for her children opening presents on Christmas morning in 2011.
Trial for Za’Zell Preston’s husband William Wallace, began on Monday.
“This Christmas story does not have a happy ending, and unfortunately this is not just a story, it is real life,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Heather Brown told jurors per Mercury News.
Wallace’s attorney, Heather Moorhead claimed that Preston was injured when she fell into a glass table, shattering it.
“Mr. Wallace is being accused of something that is not his fault,” Moorhead told jurors. “You will hear about a relationship that was full of arguing and yelling, but also a lot of love.”
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On Christmas Eve that year, the couple went to a party at a neighbor’s before returning home to the apartment. They had one child ( a newborn) together and Preston’s daughters were also in the home. They were three and eight years old.
A neighbor said they heard arguing that night, and another told prosecutors that they saw Wallace could be seen picking up what appeared to be a body by an apartment gate.
Prosecutors say on Christmas Day, Wallace dragged his wife’s body from the bedroom to a living room couch, put sunglasses on her and told the children, “Mommy ruined Christmas, she got drunk and ruined Christmas.”
He then had the children open up their presents.
When the cops arrived, they found blood throughout the apartment, along with holes punched in walls and a door off of its hinges. Preston was still slumped over on the sofa when paramedics arrived.