Husband to face jury trial in Fresno for fatally shooting wife and wounding her suspected boyfriend
Antonio R. Saldana Jr., accused of killing his estranged wife and wounding her suspected boyfriend in 2021, will be put on trial for murder, a Fresno County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday.
The 38-year-old Saldana is facing one count of murder, one count of attempted murder and five counts of child abuse and endangerment.
If convicted on all counts and enhancements he could face a maximum of 82 years to life in prison.
Testifying Thursday in Saldana’s preliminary hearing was his sister Rebecca Garcia.
Garcia was with her brother the day of the murder, Sept. 20, 2021, and said he was upset about his marriage to 33-year-old Lisa Saldana. Although the couple had moved into separate households, Garcia believed her brother still wanted to reconcile, despite allegations that Lisa Saldana was unfaithful.
She described her brother’s marriage as “complicated.”
It’s unclear what prompted Antonio Saldana to grab his 9mm Glock around midnight and drive to his wife’s house in the 2700 block of San Gabriel Avenue in Clovis. Garcia testified that when she got into her brother’s car that night, she thought the plan was to go to a liquor store, buy some beer and head back home to drink.
That didn’t happen.
“We went to Lisa’s house,” she said.
When they arrived, Garcia noticed a familiar car in the driveway, it belonged to a friend of Alejandro Ruiz, the man suspected of being involved with Lisa Saldana.
Ruiz was also a former boyfriend of Garcia’s, she said.
Garcia told prosecutor Heather Spurling that she tried to get her brother to leave, but he insisted that he just wanted to talk with his wife. He walked toward a gate on the fence, broke it down and entered the yard.
About five seconds later, Garcia said she heard a gun shot and ran into the yard. There she found her brother and Ruiz struggling over the gun, each man trying to gain control of it.
Garcia ran into the house, she said, looking for Lisa Saldana but could not find her. She then heard another gunshot as four of the five children living in the home were awakened by the commotion.
Spurling charged Antonio Saldana with child abuse and endangerment because they were inside the home at the time of the shooting and were traumatized by the death of their mother.
At some point, Garcia went into the backyard and found Lisa Saldana and Ruiz on the ground, bleeding from gunshot wounds. Her brother was in the yard, placing the barrel of the gun into the bottom of his chin, getting ready to pull the trigger.
She begged him to stop.
“He said he shot her and she is dead and he did not want to go to jail for it,” Garcia said.
Antonio Saldana squeezed the trigger but the gun jammed He pleaded with his sister to go inside the house and not come back out. Eventually she complied and a few seconds later she heard the gun go off.
Police and emergency vehicles soon arrived and found Lisa Saldana dead from her wound. Ruiz and Antonio Saldana were taken to the hospital where they recovered.
Antonio Saldana’s attorney Michael McKneely tried to poke holes in Garcia’s testimony. He suggested that she was the one who was jealous. He accused her of being angry with her sister-in-law and her ex for being in a relationship. He also said Ruiz refused to respond to any of her text messages, after they broke up.
“You created the scenario that caused Mr. Saldana to go to Lisa’s home and make the biggest mistake of his life,” McKneely said.
She denied McKeely’s accusations.
Antonio Saldana returns to court on Sept. 1 for an arraignment.
