DAD ABUSIVE FOR YEARS, CHILDREN SAY HOME LIFE COMPARED TO 'JAIL'.

Byline: Orith Goldberg Staff Writer

NORTHRIDGE - The children of Teresa Duran said Wednesday their mother had stayed with their father - who police say stabbed her and ran over her with a minivan two days ago - to protect them growing up.

``I hate him right now,' '' said 24-year-old Sam Duran. ``I want him to get the most severe punishment he can get, that the law will allow. He shouldn't have done what he did.''

On Tuesday, Los Angeles police arrested 54-year-old Samuel Baca Duran on suspicion of murdering his ex-wife. Police said he pulled Terri Duran from her car, beat her, stabbed her several times and then drove over her at least twice as she lay along the curb on Vanalden Avenue near Schoenborn Street, around the corner from their home.

Friends and family say there was a history of abuse. Duran left her husband in March to go to a Glendale women's shelter for battered women and got a restraining order against him.

``I have a lot of hate for him,'' said 27-year-old Donna Duran. The children said their father often beat their mother and berated her, but their mother stayed to protect them.

Sam Duran said his father kicked him out of the house three months ago, saying he was being disrespectful.

The children said their mother decided to move out after that, with no one to protect her. They said their father refused to see a marriage counselor.

Sam Duran said he thought his father became really upset after his wife left their Northridge home.

``I feel like because she was so good, he knew what he would be losing,'' Sam Duran said.

Before Teresa Duran's savage killing, she had endured many years of abuse by her husband and sought refuge at work on her days off, her children said.

``It was like we were living in jail or a boot camp or something,'' Donna Duran said.

Fed up, Donna Duran left home before her 22nd birthday. She recalled how her father would call her mother stupid and tell her she didn't know anything.

The couple divorced in the late 1980s as a way to protect themselves from a civil suit stemming from an assault case against Samuel Duran. He also signed over a quit claim deed to the house before going to prison in 1988 on a seven-year sentence for assaulting a building inspector. The inspector lost an eye because of injuries from the attack.

Duran spent about 3 1/2 years in prison, his children said, and returned home. While the couple lived together, they never remarried.

After leaving him earlier this year, Teresa Duran planned to sell the home and split the proceeds with her husband, friends and family said, and told him as much. Friends said she hoped he would take his proceeds from the sale and leave.

Under the restraining order, Samuel Duran was ordered to leave the home by May 7, his son said.

``On May 9, we went to the house and he just gutted the place,'' Sam Duran said. ``He thought she was going to move into the house, so he just made it unlivable.''

Born in Jalisco, Mexico, Teresa Duran came to the United States at 15. With an elementary school education, she worked hard to earn enough money to bring some of her nine brothers and sisters to America.

She got a job at the JBL stereo speaker factory and worked her way up to become a senior technician, training others.

``I think she was so good and nice to everybody because she wanted to be treated like that,'' Donna Duran said.

``She was always so affectionate, always telling me she loves me and she's proud of me,'' said Sam Duran, who is currently attending California State University, Northridge, as a finance major.

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Sam and Donna Duran hold a photo of their mother, Teresa, who was killed Monday, allegedly by their father, Samuel.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer