A California firefighter accused of killing his wife with a pickax allegedly inflicted 32 chop wounds on her body, including 25 to her head and neck. The injuries left her so severely disfigured that a detective testified in court, “her face was gone.”
Andrew Jimenez, a Glendale firefighter, is accused of murdering his wife, Mayra Jimenez, inside their North Hollywood home on Jan. 21. Mayra, 46, was a schoolteacher.
Detective Jason Haggis described the gruesome scene Wednesday during a court hearing. Mayra was found decapitated in the couple’s bedroom, surrounded by blood, with a pickax lying beside her body.
“She was lying partially covered, hanging off the bed, head off, right hand dangling. There was blood spatter on her sandals, the bed, the door, and other items in the room,” Haggis testified.
“There was a significant amount of blood, skull fragments, brain matter. Quite frankly, her face was gone,” he said.
More than 20 of Mayra’s colleagues and loved ones filled the courtroom gallery. Many wore Los Angeles Dodgers T-shirts honoring her, with “Mayra Forever” printed on the back.
The group gasped when an image showing Mayra in bed after the killing was displayed, with her white sheets covered in blood.
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A second photograph showed the pickax beside the bed, its handle pointing upward. Haggis said the weapon was “covered in blood and just two feet from the body.”
Jimenez, wearing an orange jumpsuit and shackles, looked toward the images as they were shown in court.
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The medical examiner documented 32 chop wounds, including 25 to Mayra’s head and neck, as well as an “internal decapitation of neck” and severe brain trauma caused by the large pickax head.
Prosecutors said a wound on Mayra’s left temple was consistent with the pick end of the ax recovered at the scene.
The medical examiner determined that Mayra died from chop wounds consistent with the ax. She was pronounced dead at 4:45 a.m. on Jan. 21 and was identified through fingerprints, prosecutor Kelsey Unger said.
Unger declined to show an “extremely graphic” photograph of the victim’s face.
“That was really hard, I’m glad they didn’t show all of them,” a shaken friend of Mayra’s told the California Post after the hearing.
Investigators also testified about an argument the couple had at a Los Angeles Kings hockey game earlier in January, suggesting that suspected infidelity may have played a role in the alleged killing.
“The defendant started saying Mayra was cheating on him and he had proof, screen shots from Mayra’s phone that was proof,” Haggis testified.
Another officer testified that Jimenez, his mother, father and son flagged her down as she was arriving at the police station in her patrol car shortly before 4 a.m., the morning Mayra’s body was discovered.
“He said he did something and he was going to stand by at the station while we did a welfare check,” Detective Erica Pedrosa said.
The judge ruled that prosecutors had presented enough evidence for the case to proceed to trial.
Jimenez is charged with murder and is expected to return to court for an arraignment on Nov. 4. If convicted, he faces 26 years to life in prison.
