Jury selection is expected to conclude before Friday in the trial of a 43-year-old San Jacinto woman accused of fatally stabbing her live-in boyfriend in a premeditated attack stemming from his romantic involvement with an ex-girlfriend.
Wynette Clara Nunez is charged with first-degree murder for the alleged 2021 attack on 27-year-old Mauro Villasenor, also of San Jacinto. Nunez is additionally charged with a sentence-enhancing allegation of using a deadly weapon — a knife — in the commission of a felony.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Charles Koosed began summoning panels of prospective jurors to the Riverside Hall of Justice last week for screening as to their availability and qualifications.
That process continued Monday and was likely to wrap up sometime midweek.
Nunez is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Smith Correctional Facility.
According to a trial brief filed by the District Attorney’s Office, the defendant and victim had lived together peaceably for roughly nine months prior to the alleged fatal assault on the night of July 4, 2021.
“By all accounts, the defendant and Villasenor did not fight with each other and were in a loving relationship,” the brief said.
However, sometime during the first half of 2021, the victim began “secretly” seeing his ex-girlfriend, identified in court documents only as “O.O.,” and the encounters became known to Nunez and her sisters.
The sisters, whose identities were not disclosed, verbally confronted O.O. at her workplace several times, trying to provoke her into a physical altercation, prosecutors said. Nunez was not present when these confrontations occurred.
Whether she ever argued with Villasenor about the affair with his ex was not established.
During the evening of July 4, 2021, the defendant, victim and one of her sisters had a small Fourth of July celebration at his residence in the 100 block of Boxelder Way, near Elderberry Street. They drank cognac and were in seemingly good spirits, according to the brief.
Nunez’s sister left shortly before 10 p.m. Sheriff’s investigators could never determine the exact chain of events that followed in the ensuing half-hour, but at some point, Nunez went into the kitchen and grabbed a knife, possibly more than one, prosecutors alleged.
She then stabbed the victim below the right collar bone, above the left eyebrow and slashed his left forearm, the brief alleged. A fresh scratch mark later found on her left arm may have indicated an attempt by the victim to defend himself, according to court papers.
Just after 10 p.m., Nunez called 911, shouting, “Please send someone; he’s going to die!” the brief said, adding that she told a dispatcher, “I don’t know what happened.” She provided her address and hung up, according to the narrative.
When patrol deputies reached the property minutes later, they found the front door bolted shut. Despite repeatedly knocking, they could not get anyone to answer and tried breaking in with kicks, but couldn’t get the door to budge, prompting them to obtain a “battering ram to gain access to the residence,” court papers stated.
After entering the house, they discovered Nunez on the floor with Villasenor, who was unconscious, crying hysterically.
“Several kitchen knives were observed on the countertop and dining room table,” the brief said. “One of the knives had apparent blood on it.”
Further “blood smears” were found around the kitchen sink and in the upstairs bathroom sink, according to court documents.
Paramedics arrived soon afterward and attempted life-saving measures, but Villasenor died at the scene.
Central Homicide Unit detectives detained Nunez for questioning. She initially stated that she had left the house and returned to find Villasenor on the floor dying. However, after security surveillance camera footage around the property failed to corroborate her story, the defendant changed it, admitting she’d never been out of the house that night, according to the prosecution.
Detectives asked whether she wanted to pen a letter to her dead boyfriend, and she agreed, allegedly writing: “I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can say to justify what I’ve done … I hate myself for what happened. I can’t even wrap my head around it. I never meant for it to happen.”
She was then booked into the Banning jail.
Nunez has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.