SANTA ANA : Woman Convicted in Husband’s Death

A Highland Park hairdresser was convicted Thursday of involuntary manslaughter for the St. Patrick’s Day killing of her husband, even though she claimed that she stabbed him in self-defense after enduring years of beatings.

Martha Ortiz, 49, faces up to four years in prison when she is sentenced on Jan. 17 by Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Molko said he had sought a second-degree murder charge against Ortiz, but Fitzgerald threw it out, permitting jurors to consider only voluntary or involuntary manslaughter.

Ortiz’s lawyer, Deputy Public Defender William G. Kelley, had argued for her acquittal, but he said jurors found insufficient evidence that she stabbed her husband, Jimmy Ortiz, in self-defense on March 17.

“They felt she probably did believe that she had to do it to defend herself, but they didn’t think there was enough evidence to prove that that was a reasonable belief,” Kelley said.

The jury did conclude, however, that Martha Ortiz did not intend to kill him, Kelley said.

The couple, visiting Martha Ortiz’s sister at a Santa Ana mobile home park, had just come home from a bar, where they had gotten into an argument while drinking, Kelley said.

Inside the trailer, the fight escalated into a physical altercation, and Martha Ortiz ran into the kitchen to escape her husband, Kelley said. He followed, and as he attacked her, she grabbed a 7-inch carving knife and stabbed him, Kelley said.

Jimmy Ortiz abused his wife “big time” for years, Kelley said. During one confrontation while they were traveling in New Mexico in 1987, Martha Ortiz jumped out of the car and her husband came after her, beating and kicking her, throwing her into oncoming traffic and pushing her face into puddles in the street, Kelley said.