LOS ANGELES : Retrial Ordered for Wife Who Cut Off Man’s Testicles

A woman acquitted of mayhem for cutting off her husband’s testicles with a pair of scissors should be retried on a battery charge, a judge ruled Tuesday.

A jury acquitted Aurelia Macias, 36, of mayhem and assault with a deadly weapon last month for the Sept. 20, 1992, attack. The jury deadlocked 7 to 5 in favor of acquittal on a charge of battery with serious bodily injury.

“Society has a great interest” in seeing the case resolved, Superior Court Judge Robert O’Neil said.

Aurelia Macias testified that her 39-year-old husband, Jaime, was drunk and tried to force her to have sex while she was trying to give milk to their 6-month-old baby. She said she attacked him after he grabbed her.

Prosecutors said Aurelia Macias attacked her husband while he slept. She was in a jealous rage, they said, because he had drunkenly flirted with another woman at a party that day. Only one of the man’s testicles was recovered, and not until the day after the attack, so doctors were unable to reattach it.

The couple have reconciled and Macias did not want to press charges, but the state pursued the case anyway. Macias, who has recovered, can have normal sexual relations but can no longer father children.