A prosecutor told jurors at his murder trial that a Southern California man propped up his wife’s body on a couch, told their children she was intoxicated, and made them open Christmas presents in front of her body.
“This Christmas story does not have a happy ending, and unfortunately this is not just a story, it is real life,” Heather Brown, senior deputy district attorney in Orange County, said Monday as trial began for William Wallace of Anaheim, the Orange County Register reported.
Za’Zell Preston, 26, was a college student pursuing a career as a domestic violence counselor when she was killed in 2011 by a man who had previously spent time in prison for assaulting her, according to the newspaper.
Brown said the couple had gone to a neighbor’s for a Christmas Eve gathering, and a neighbor claimed to have heard an argument later that night.
According to the prosecutor, Wallace told a member of Preston’s family that “we were drinking and during the argument I tossed her around a little.”
Wallace hauled his wife’s body from the bedroom to the living room couch the next morning, putting sunglasses on her and told the kids, “Mommy ruined Christmas, she got drunk and ruined Christmas,” according to Brown
When paramedics arrived, Preston was slumped down on the sofa. She left behind a newborn son and two children, aged 3 and 8.
.Preston died as a result of injuries suffered when she tripped and fell onto a glass table, breaking it, according to Wallace’s attorney.
If convicted of first-degree murder, Wallace, 39, could face a sentence ranging from 25 to life in prison.
