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Accused wife-killer testifies on romance undone

Jurors expect to hear account of killing Thursday

Mike Miller  —  7/16/2008 7:53 pm

Jurors in the Julio Marin-Garcia murder trial will have to wait until Thursday to hear him describe the gruesome murder of his wife in the apartment they shared after making a trek from their native Mexico to Madison.

Marin-Garcia, 28, took the witness stand Wednesday to begin his account of the Oct. 17, 2007, stabbing death of Yuliana Hernandez-Hernandez, 23, but court was halted for the day before Marin-Garcia was questioned by assistant state public defender Luis Cuevas about the actual killing.

Marin-Garcia did talk about growing up in poverty in Mexico and how he met Hernandez-Hernandez at a dance when she was 14 and he was 18 and working for a major brewery. He was handing out gifts as part of his job and approached a group of young women, which included Hernandez-Hernandez.

"That's when I learned her name," he said. "We danced. ... I asked her if I may see her again and she said yes."

A long distance courtship ensued in which Marin-Garcia would spend an hour and a half on the road each weekend to drive to her small village. And although her mother approved of the relationship, her father and oldest brother did not, Marin-Garcia said.

In January of 1999, "we ran off together," he said, and were married the next year.

In 2001, Marin-Garcia joined with others to make an illegal entry into the United States, in hopes of landing a job which would allow him to save enough money to buy a home in Mexico for his growing family, which included a son at the time. It was to be the beginning of a saga which would end in the killing of his young wife when she took a new lover.

"It was very hard," he said of his travels. "We had to walk through deserts, had to climb mountains," to get across the border.

He worked two jobs and what he didn't put into savings, he sent to his family in Mexico, he said. After five or six months he returned to Mexico.

"I was sad about leaving my wife and son behind me," he told jurors.

He and Hernandez-Hernandez lived with their growing family, that now included a daughter as well as a son, for the next 18 months in Mexico, but Marin-Garcia said he could not find a job that paid him enough for them to realize their dream, and he decided again to cross the border, leaving his family behind.

"Crossing to get here was full of suffering," he said, but again with the help of relatives, he made it to Madison where he worked two jobs.

Hernandez-Hernandez, he said, insisted on joining him in Madison, despite his description of life in Madison as "work, work, work. It's travel to work and travel from work to home," he said.

Hernandez-Hernandez then came to Madison, and the children came later. In all, Marin-Garcia paid $9,000 for his family to be smuggled into the United States.

After living with relatives for a time, they were able to move into an apartment in Fitchburg, he said.

Marin-Garcia set the stage for his Thursday testimony by telling jurors his wife grew distant from him and finally asked him to leave the apartment.

Jurors are expected to hear Thursday how he eventually realized Hernandez-Hernandez was having an affair with Darwin Carrillo-Calle, who has already testified at trial.

Marin-Garcia was waiting in the apartment he formerly shared Hernandez-Hernandez when she and Carrillo- Calle came to the home after finishing a work shift in the early morning hours of Oct. 17, according to prior testimony from Carillo-Calle.

After Carrillo-Calle left, Marin-Garcia and Hernandez-Hernandez had a talk about children and property, and Marin-Garcia then grabbed a knife and began repeatedly stabbing Hernandez-Hernandez. 

Jurors have already heard a graphic audio recording of that event, with Hernandez-Hernandez screaming for her life before a series of gurgling sounds, indicating her throat and windpipe were cut. The recording was made by a voice-activated recorder in Marin-Garcia's pocket, testimony has shown.

Assistant District Attorney Corey Stephan describes that killing as a first degree intentional homicide while defense attorney Jon Helland told jurors in opening statements that it would show Marin-Garcia killed his wife, but did so in the heat of passion and should be convicted of second degree murder.

Along with the tape recording, Marin-Garcia left notes explaining his action, including one in which he apologized to his children and another saying that his wife mocking him and laughing at him when he asked her about her affair "converted my love to hatred."

The case is somewhat an academic exercise since Marin-Garcia would face a mandatory life in prison sentence if convicted of the first degree murder charge, with presiding Dane County Circuit Court Judge John Markson being able to set a parole eligibility date at any time after 20 years or deny parole altogether. If convicted of second degree murder, Marin-Garcia would still face a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison to be followed by 20 years of extended supervision.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberations late Thursday.

Mike Miller  —  7/16/2008 7:53 pm