A Santa Barbara man will stand trial for murder in the stabbing death of his girlfriend in late October, a Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge ruled Monday.
Several Santa Barbara Police Department witnesses testified about the events of Oct. 29 and the investigation that ensued after Angela Laskey, 39, was found dead in her apartment in the 500 block of West Los Olivos Street.
Patrol officers testified about responding to the 1:40 a.m. disturbance call and finding Laskey on the floor of the apartment.
They arrested Aubrey Dupree Wadford, 39, at the scene.
Laskey and Wadford have a 2-year-old daughter and lived in the apartment together.
The girl was unhurt, and police found her sitting on her bed watching television in another room when they responded to the apartment.
Laskey’s mother, who lives in Scotland, is planning to take custody of the toddler, police have previously said.
At the end of the preliminary hearing, Judge Brian Hill determined that Wadford will be tried for the charges of murder and a special allegation of using a deadly weapon, a knife.
Detective Crystal Bedolla, the lead investigator for this case, testified about Laskey’s autopsy, which was conducted by Dr. John Smith, the chief medical examiner for Ventura County who is a part-time forensic pathologist for Santa Barbara County.
Laskey had bruises on her chest and cheek, and cuts on both hands that were “consistent with defensive wounds,” Bedolla testified.
Smith determined that four stab wounds on her neck caused Laskey’s death.
A toxicology test was conducted as well, but in response to Deputy Public Defender Mindi Boulet’s questioning, Bedolla said she didn’t recall the results.
Deputy District Attorney Von Nguyen called several police officers and detectives to the stand to ask about the crime scene at the apartment and interviews with neighbors.
Officers Nathan Beltran and Blake Burgard said they interviewed the neighbor who reported the disturbance. The neighbor “described it as a female screaming bloody murder inside the apartment,” Beltran said.
The screaming stopped as the neighbor was talking to police dispatch, he testified.
After about a minute of knocking on the front door of the apartment with the reported disturbance, a man opened it slightly and walked away from the door.
Burgard noticed a “fairly significant amount of fresh blood” near the door, and officers spotted Laskey lying face-down on the floor near a bed, they testified.
The man, who Beltran identified as Wadford, was holding a cigarette and standing in the living room with “what I perceived to be a blank, calm stare.”
There was blood on the cigarette, Wadford’s hands and his sweater, Beltran testified.
Beltran determined that Wadford may have a weapon, so for his and Burgard’s safety, he rushed into the apartment to place Wadford in handcuffs, he said.
Wadford was calm and gave no resistance to being led out of the apartment in handcuffs, Beltran said.
When asked whether anyone else was in the apartment, Wadford said, “Just my baby’s here,” Beltran testified.
After Wadford was led out of the apartment, Burgard tried to render aid to the Laskey. He knelt next to her and tried to wake her by shaking and yelling at her.
“She was warm but I was getting no response, so I felt for her pulse,” he testified.
He felt no pulse and noticed a large cut on the back of her neck, so he applied pressure with a baby blanket he found on the ground and then rolled her onto her back.
He saw another laceration on the front of her neck and did chest compressions until medical assistance arrived, he testified.
Paramedics declared Laskey dead at the scene.
Police found a “large kitchen knife on the kitchen counter covered in blood,” and the medical examiner determined the cause of Laskey’s death was multiple stab wounds, according to testimony during the preliminary hearing.
It appeared the two adults shared the living room as a bedroom, and the 2-year-old girl had the single bedroom.
When police arrived, Burgard opened the door to the bedroom about a foot, and peeked in to see the child sitting in bed watching television at a low volume, he said.
“She looked at me and appeared in good health from a distance,” he said. “I closed the door and guarded the door so she wouldn’t come outside.”
Boulet, who is representing Wadford, asked about the cut on Wadford’s hand, which was bleeding at the time he was handcuffed.
His hands were covered in blood when police arrived, and he asked whether he could smoke a cigarette after being led out of the apartment, Beltran said. His hand was bleeding enough that a small pool formed where he was sitting on the stairwell, police said.
Boulet also asked about video and audio recordings of the incident, and Beltran said his vehicle dash camera wouldn’t have picked up any related activity even if it was on, which he isn’t sure it was.
It’s required to use the personal audio recording devices for domestic violence cases, Beltran added.
Police detectives interviewed several neighbors who said they had seen the couple arguing before or heard screaming from the apartment on previous occasions.
The neighbor who called police the morning of the homicide said it was a “fairly common occurrence” for Laskey to scream or yell at Wadford, Detective Ryan Dejohn testified.
Months before, Wadford had told the neighbor that he was suspicious Laskey had a boyfriend and wanted help bypassing the security code on her iPhone to identify the boyfriend, Dejohn said.
Another neighbor told police she saw the couple a few minutes before midnight on the night of the homicide, and believes she interrupted an argument they were having on the sidewalk outside the apartment complex.
Police also interviewed Nathaniel Phillips, a man who had “some sort of sexual relationship” with Laskey, and had received a text the night of the homicide that read, “I so need to get out of here,” Dejohn testified.
The man didn’t see the text until the next morning.
Hill determined there is enough evidence to send the case to trial, and Wadford will be arraigned for the charges of murder and use of a deadly weapon later this month.
— Noozhawk news editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.