She pushed him into it.
That, Angel Vega-Sanchez told investigators, is why he shot and killed his wife.
Special Agent Larry Hedlund of the Division of Criminal Investigation testified Wednesday that Vega-Sanchez gave him a laundry list of reasons for killing Rachelle Vega, 42.
Vega was fatally shot around 4 a.m. May 17, at a home at 1323 Fifth Ave. S. Vega-Sanchez, 29, is on trial in Webster County District Court for first-degree murder.
Hedlund said Vega-Sanchez told him in an interview that Vega was having an affair, was a not a good wife and mother and laughed and called him names in front of other people.
On the night of the shooting, Vega allegedly mocked her husband and refused to go home with him in front of witness Mario Isai Jimenez Ramos. Ramos, 25, came with Vega-Sanchez to the house where Vega was with friends.
Ramos said after they left a bar in downtown Fort Dodge, the two drove around trying to find Vega's truck. Once they found her truck, which was around the corner from the house on Fifth Avenue South, Ramos said they went to the couple's house on South 21st Street.
Vega-Sanchez got a shotgun and a handgun. They then returned to the house on Fifth Avenue South.
Two witnesses who testified Tuesday said they were with Ramos in the kitchen while Vega-Sanchez and his wife were talking in the living room. Ramos and Vega-Sanchez had been at the house about 30 minutes before she was shot, while she was sitting on a couch.
Through a translator, Ramos testified that the three men were perplexed after hearing the shots and that Vega-Sanchez then pointed the gun at them and told them not to follow him. Then he left.
Vega was shot four times. Once in nape of her neck, twice on the left, lower part of her back and once in the left arm. That shot went through her left arm, through her pelvic area and ended up in her thigh.
Dr. Michele Catallier, an associate medical examiner for the state, was the forensic pathologist for Vega, said that bullet path was consistent with someone who was sitting.
Hedlund said Vega-Sanchez denied aiming the gun at Vega's pelvic region in the interview.
Criminologist Victor Murillo, who works in the firearms and tool marks section at the DCI Crime Lab, said that the shots were fired from about two to three feet away, judging from powder residue left on her clothes.
The gun, four bullets and three cartridge cases were introduced into evidence Wednesday
Law enforcement was called shortly after 4 a.m. in reference to the shooting. Vega-Sanchez told Hedlund by phone where he was. After a second phone call to find him, Vega-Sanchez was arrested near Decker Auditorium on the Iowa Central Community College Campus. He then led officers to the gun he used, which was near a residential unit at Friendship Haven.
Defense attorney Joe McCarville read the interview between Hedlund and Vega-Sanchez where he told Hedlund she was a cheater and torturing him for two or three months - the length of time he knew about her affair.
"I was not like this, I never thought about this. She pushed me into this," Vega-Sanchez stated in the interview.
Tuesday during opening statements, Vega-Sanchez's defense attorneys argued he should be charged with voluntary manslaughter because it was a crime of passion. Prosecutors dismissed that argument, saying it was premeditated.
The trial is scheduled to continue at 9 a.m. today.
Contact Angela Burch at (515) 573-2141 or aburch@messengernews.net
