Woman Considers Plea Bargain in Alleged Plot to Kill Husband

On the eve of a preliminary hearing on charges that she schemed to kill her husband, Woodland Hills lawyer Nicole Garza is considering a plea bargain that would spare her children from a public trial.

Although prosecutors would not comment on their offer to resolve the sensational crime with an early plea, sources on both sides of the case confirmed that Garza, 32, is considering a plea of no contest to conspiring with her sister to murder her husband, veteran Los Angeles Deputy City Atty. Jose Garza.

She also is considering a no contest plea to a lesser manslaughter charge in the death of her sister, Lynette LaFontaine-Trujillo, who police say was disguised and lurking in the garage of the Garzas’ Sylmar home when Jose Garza shot her to death during an exchange of gunfire.

Head Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephen L. Cooley and Deputy Public Defender Marie Girolamo said Tuesday that they could not discuss any plea bargain. But sources confirmed that negotiations have been ongoing for several weeks, and that Garza could change her not guilty plea when she appears Thursday in San Fernando Municipal Court.

Nicole Garza has a powerful incentive to resolve the case, according to one source. She wishes to spare her children--as well as her slain sister’s children--the pain of a tawdry trial.

And by shortening any potential sentence, she could be reunited with her children, now ages 18 months, 3 and 4, in as few as 15 years.

.. After her sister died Oct. 7, Nicole Garza was charged with murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, all of which carry life sentences. She is being held at the Sybil Brand Institute for Women on $1-million bail.

On Sept. 25, Nicole Garza sent her husband to the garage to fetch ice cream. He took a gun from his collection when the dogs began barking and wound up in a shootout with a supposed intruder.

That intruder turned out to be his sister-in-law, LaFontaine-Trujillo, 34, who was wearing tinted shooting glasses, a wig, black evening gloves and a black-hooded sweatshirt pulled tightly over her head.

Police found LaFontaine-Trujillo’s car nearby and uncovered damp scraps of paper that authorities said was a blueprint for the plot to kill Jose Garza.