A Glendale firefighter was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on a murder charge for allegedly bludgeoning his wife with an ax inside their North Hollywood home.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Theresa McGonigle said she found sufficient cause to allow the case against Andrew Jimenez to proceed to trial.
Deputy Public Defender Mark Carrillo had asked the judge to dismiss the charge based on what he called insufficiency of the evidence against his client.
Deputy District Attorney Kelsey McKeever-Unger countered that the “motive was expressed for the murder before the murder,” and that Mayra Jimenez’s injuries were “so gruesome” that it was undeniable it was a murder.
Jimenez, who will turn 46 on Thursday, is charged in the Jan. 21 killing of his 46-year-old wife, who was a third-grade teacher at Wilshire Park Elementary School in Koreatown.
The murder charge includes an allegation that Andrew Jimenez used an ax during the crime.
Officers discovered the woman’s body in the couple’s bedroom at their home in the 5600 block of Satsuma Avenue after Jimenez and three other family members showed up at a police station, where he asked officers to check his house, according to Detective Erica Pedroza of the Los Angeles Police Department.
“There was blood all over,” Pedroza said of the scene.
When asked if he was able to identify the victim through her Department of Motor Vehicles photo, LAPD Detective Jason Haggis responded, “Quite frankly, her face was gone.”
The woman — who was subsequently identified through fingerprint analysis — sustained about 32 “chop wounds,” including 25 to the head, face and neck, and other injuries including “internal decapitation at the neck,” according to stipulations presented in court during the hearing.
The detective noted that an ax was found at the scene, leaning up against the bed and covered in blood, and that there were no signs of forced entry into the home.
The detective said he subsequently spoke with the victim’s brother-in-law, who told him about a recent conversation with Jimenez at a hockey game in which the defendant stated that his wife was cheating on him and showed him some screen shots from the woman’s phone that Jimenez believed was evidence of her alleged infidelity.
The detective testified that the woman’s brother-in-law said that it didn’t look like infidelity to him and that he didn’t believe it was true, and that he received a text message from Jimenez the next day in which he described it as a big misunderstanding.
A potential diary that was turned over to police by Jimenez’s son actually appeared to be a work notebook, according to the detective, who said he did not find anything that stood out to him as evidence of the woman’s alleged infidelity.
Police were unable to locate Jimenez’s phone, which the detective said had moved throughout the area after the defendant was taken into custody that day, according to Haggis.
“Homicide investigators conducted interviews, reviewed videos, and processed the crime scene. Their investigation revealed that the victim and suspect were in a marital relationship and that this was an incident of domestic violence,” Los Angeles police said in a statement released the day the woman’s body was discovered.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement in January that the case is a “devastating reminder of the persistent scourge of intimate partner violence in our communities.”
“No one, including those sworn to protect others, is above the law, and we will hold the defendant accountable for this horrific crime and bring justice to Ms. Jimenez and her loved ones,” Hochman said then.
The couple had been married since November 2014, the New York Post reported, citing pictures on social media.
Jimenez, who had served as a firefighter/paramedic with the Glendale Fire Department since April 2008, was placed on administrative leave effective immediately, the city of Glendale said in January.
“Our condolences are with the victim’s family and loved ones,” Fire Chief Jeff Brooks said in a statement in January. “We are prepared to support those impacted by this tragedy, and we are also ensuring our firefighters and staff have access to support resources as they process this loss.”
No immediate word was available on Jimenez’s current employment status.
Crisis counseling was offered to students and staff at Wilshire Park Elementary School following the woman’s death.
“Mrs. Jimenez was a beloved teacher, colleague, and friend, and she made a lasting impact on our school community and the students she served,” a Los Angeles Unified School District representative said in a message sent to the school community.
Jimenez remains jailed without bail and was ordered to return to the downtown Los Angeles courthouse for arraignment Nov. 4.