BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — They’d planned a celebration.
But when Rafael Estrada crashed the party, events quickly took a turn for the worse — and then the horrific.
Estrada, 45, allegedly argued with and followed his estranged wife to a bedroom where he stabbed her in the neck with a pocketknife in front of at least one of her children.
Taylor Danay Dominguez Estrada, 32, bled out and died at the scene.
On Wednesday, Rafael Estrada’s trial on charges including first-degree murder began in front of Judge Judith K. Dulcich.
17 News is live blogging the proceedings.
Estrada is represented by Deputy Public Defender Jacob Evans, and the case is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Leanne Wilder.
The stabbing happened May 28 of last year at a family gathering in east Bakersfield that was held after an eighth-grade graduation party.
Taylor Estrada had made it clear Rafael Estrada wasn’t invited, according to court documents.
He showed up anyway, smelling of alcohol and slurring his words as he argued about divorce papers Taylor Estrada had asked him to sign, witnesses told sheriff’s investigators
After the stabbing, Rafael Estrada got in a pickup and led arriving deputies on a chase that ended about 10 miles away in the parking lot of a church in the 9900 block of Ramos Avenue, off Taft Highway.
He was taken into custody following a struggle during which deputies released a K-9 and used force to bring him to the ground, according to the documents. A pocketknife and box cutter were found on him, according to the sheriff’s office.
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