Kleber Cordova was convicted today on all counts in the 2008 bathtub drowning of his 26-year-old wife, Eliana Torres, in Morristown. Sentencing is scheduled for May 25, according to the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office.
Cordova’s public defender had said in her closing argument to the jury in Superior Court that he was innocent of murder and that the prosecutor was “ignoring its own evidence” in pursuing that charge, according to earlier Star-Ledger reports.
Cordova, 32, also was charged with child endangerment, hindering apprehension and tampering with evidence in the drowning death of Torres in their home on May 9, 2008.
Public defender Jessica Moses asked for acquittal on all charges, but said that, under the circumstances, the jury could find Cordova guilty at most of passion/provocation manslaughter, the Star-Ledger said. Judge David Ironson had refused to reduce the murder charge to manslaughter — citing court testimony by Cordova’s now 12-year-old daughter — but gave the jury the option of finding Cordova guilty on that lesser charge.
Soy prima de la víctima ….