Man Held in Wife’s Stabbing
SANTA ANA — Police arrested a 40-year-old man Sunday after he allegedly stabbed his wife to death.
He was captured hiding in a nearby yard, police said.
Gerardo Rodriguez Ayala was booked into County Jail on suspicion of murder in the death of his wife, Maria Del Carmen Ventura, 30, Police Sgt. Dennis Rios said.
The couple lived in an apartment in the 1700 block of West Wilshire Avenue, where Ventura was found by police about 9:50 a.m., lying in a garage and bleeding from multiple stab wounds. She was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where she was pronounced dead after surgery.
Rodriguez was arrested after residents in the 1300 block of South Rita Way complained to police about a man hiding in a back yard. A knife believed to have been used in the stabbing was recovered in nearby bushes, Rios said.
Rios said that Rodriguez and his wife were from El Salvador and that she had been living here for four years.
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