Wife Denies Plot to Kill Husband

An attorney for Rebecca Cleland, accused of faking a carjacking to have her husband murdered, maintained Thursday that she is innocent and said police have little evidence to support their allegations.

Cleland, 28, was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder with special circumstances. Her arraignment, which had been set for Thursday, was postponed to March 5.

“Mrs. Cleland did not murder her husband, and neither she nor anyone she knows had anything to do with his untimely death,” said Raul Ayala, her defense attorney. “She loved her husband. He was the only family she had.”

Bruce Cleland, 43, an affluent software designer, was shot and killed in Boyle Heights on July 26 as he and his wife were driving to their Whittier home. Rebecca Cleland told investigators that she had noticed that the tailgate of their sport utility vehicle was ajar as she was preparing to get on the freeway. When she stopped to close it, she said, an assailant hit her on the head, knocking her unconscious. Her husband was found lying in a pool of blood across the street from the vehicle.

Police arrested Rebecca Cleland Tuesday after a seven-month investigation they said revealed a murder plot engineered by a woman allegedly intent on profiting from the death of her older husband. Police say she arranged for someone to lie in wait and kill him when she stopped the car.

The Clelands had been married less than six months when Bruce Cleland became disillusioned with the relationship, his parents said. On the night he was killed, he had agreed to meet his wife for dinner to discuss a reconciliation.

On Thursday, her attorneys contended that the police immediately concluded that Rebecca Cleland was guilty, ignoring the fact that the killing took place in what they called a high-crime area.

“After the facts are exposed, the lack of evidence will make it painfully clear that detectives have built a case on supposition and flimsy evidence, instead of rock-solid fact,” Ayala said.

He denied police reports that Rebecca Cleland had no injury after the attack, saying that her personal physician saw her three days afterward and determined that she had suffered a severe blow to the head.

He also denied claims that she had taken out life insurance policies on her husband.

Ayala said the charges against her, along with the death of her husband, have left Rebecca Cleland traumatized. She has been hospitalized during the investigation and placed on suicide watch, he said.

“She is suffering from extreme emotional distress,” he said. “This has been quite a blow.”