SoCal Christmas Killing: Mother's Body Staged As Kids Open Gifts

ORANGE COUNTY, CA —An Orange County resident was found guilty of murdering his live-in girlfriend then propping her body up on the couch during the opening of the family Christmas presents, court records show.

The murder of Za'zell Preston occurred nine years, and the trial for her murder began in early March. After a two-day deliberation, jurors reached a verdict Wednesday morning, finding William Wallace, 39, guilty of second-degree murder. He will be sentenced on June 4, according to the courts and he faces a maximum sentence of 15 years and life in prison, the Orange County District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Kimberly Edds reported.

Wallace was previously indicted on one felony count of murder by a grand jury in 2012, according to Edds.

It was Christmas morning of 2011 when Wallace videotaped his stepchildren opening their Christmas presents in front of their mother's corpse inside their Anaheim apartment, prosecutors said during the trial.

Preston's two daughters from a prior relationship, a 3- and 8-year-old— and the couple's 7-week old baby were in the apartment at the time of their mother's murder, according to police.

Wallace previously spent time in jail for beating his wife, and according to Edds, Preston had been enrolled in college classes, with dreams of becoming a domestic violence counselor.

District Attorney Todd Spitzer spoke out on Wallace's conviction Thursday.

“A young mother finally losing her life after years of violence at the hands of her husband is a heart-wrenching tragedy,” Spitzer said. “That heartbreak is only exacerbated by the fact that her children witnessed much of the violence and were forced to celebrate Christmas in the presence of their dead mother.

"That is not a Christmas memory any child should be forced to have. Thankfully, Senior District Attorney Heather Brown fought for – and achieved – justice for Zazell Preston. We all have an obligation to speak up against violence of any kind, especially domestic violence where the victims are so fiercely controlled by their abusers. The cycle of domestic violence is a vicious one and I want every victim of domestic violence to know that they are not alone. No one should have to live in fear of violence in their own home.”

Victims of domestic violence can find help through the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and our community partners by visiting the Orange County District Attorney website at orangecountyda.org.

The night of the crime...

Wallace and Preston had been to a neighbor's party on Christmas Eve.

As they returned to their apartment, an argument ensued. Neighbors told investigators that later they saw Wallace carrying what looked like a body near the gate of the apartment after 1 a.m. In a report from the Orange County Register, Wallace told a family member that he "tossed her around a bit" during the argument, "then carried her upstairs."

Hours later on Christmas morning Wallace "dragged Preston's body from the bedroom, propped her up on the couch, put sunglasses on her and told the children that Mommy ruined Christmas, she got drunk and ruined Christmas," prosecutors told the Jury early in the trial.

It was not until 9:30 a.m. Christmas day that he reported that Preston needed medical help, Anaheim police said.

Authorities later determined Preston died about 1 a.m.

A history of domestic violence...

Preston endured a tumultuous relationship with Wallace, according to both attorneys. Though the defense said there were arguments in the relationship, the pair also was "full of love for one another."

The prosecution painted a much more grim picture.

"He repeatedly threatened to kill her," Brown said in her closing argument. She added that Preston is dead because Wallace "hit her in the head over and over... all the injuries to her head killed her."

Heather Moorhead, Wallace's attorney, alleged that Preston, while drunk on Christmas Eve, fell into a glass table, causing mortal injuries to her head.

The prosecution described Wallace as "controlling and violent" through their relationship which ended after "night of terror" to the jury, saying that the crime scene in the apartment in the 200 block of Laxore Street near Lincoln Avenue "looked like a scene from 'The Shining."'

Brown dismissed any suggestion by the defense that Preston fell and hit her head because she was drunk.

"Even if you believe this was an accident, his failing to get medical attention is implied malice murder," Brown said, referring to evidence that suggests the victim died around 1 a.m.

Still, the defendant did not call 911 until later that morning.

The 911 dispatcher had tried to instruct Wallace on how to revive her as paramedics rushed over to the apartment, but he hung up on them, Brown said. Emergency officials found Preston slumped on the sofa after having been dead for several hours.

Police who arrived after the call found blood in the apartment, holes punched in the walls and a door off its hinges, according to reports.

Three days "before this brutal beating," Preston had confided to family while on a holiday shopping trip that she wanted to leave Wallace, the prosecutor said.

"Perhaps he learned she was making plans to leave him," Brown said, adding that the defendant was "so insecure" that he would beat his wife if she "were at the store too long."

Brown said Wallace told Preston's then-8-year-old daughter to lie to the police, which is why she gave inconsistent reports of what happened to her mother.

Wallace pleaded guilty to beating the victim and threatening to kill her in 2008 and did 18 days in jail, Brown said.

Wallace had been in and out of jail, and the girl didn't know whether she would remain in his custody, Brown said.

"No incarceration stopped him, no protective order stopped him," she said.

If Preston had suffered a debilitating accidental fall, "innocent people call 911," Brown said. "He told her, 'If you leave me, I will kill you,' and he made good on his promise."

Wallace's attorney, Heather Moorhead, said, "Did Mr. Wallace intend to kill his wife? And the answer to that is an emphatic no."

Moorhead argued that the couple had both gotten drunk that night and that "Ms. Preston fell down more than once... at the bottom of the stairs, against a glass table, in the bathroom. By accident, she fell ... The whole situation was horrible, but it was not murder."

Moorhead said the bleeding in the brain was so widespread that "it was impossible to determine which injury to her head caused the bleeding."

The defense attorney added, "If you believe this was from an accident, then Mr. Wallace is not responsible for her death ... We can't say which injury caused the death. There is absolutely no proof."

Moorhead argued that the couple had their ups and downs and times when they were happy together. She said Preston, at one point in August 2011, moved to modify a stay-away order so they could be together again.

"This case is about what Mr. Wallace intended," Moorhead said. "He wasn't perfect that day, but he did not act with any intent to kill ... and because of that, you cannot find him guilty of murder."

City News Service, Patch Editor Ashley Ludwig contributed to this report.