MAN TERMED SUICIDAL; ARGUMENTS UNDER WAY IN SLAYING TRIAL.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Baudilio Perez was suicidal over the breakup of his marriage and a fear that his estranged wife's boyfriend would nudge him out of his daughters' lives, a jury heard Monday as a slaying trial got under way.

Thursday will mark the two-year anniversary of the shooting that killed John Thompson, an off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy who was romantically involved with colleague Deputy Angela Perez. She worked at the Peter J. Pitchess Detention Center and was in the process of divorcing the defendant when the deadly confrontation occurred in Newhall.

Angela Perez had bought a house with Thompson on Atwood Boulevard, where Baudilio Perez stormed in March 11, 1997, and fatally shot the man, Deputy District Attorney Jacquelyn Lacey told the four-man, eight-woman jury during opening statements in North Valley Superior Court.

Defense attorney Henry Salcido, in his opening statements, said that Baudilio Perez, now 33, had gone to the house that day to take his life in front of Angela, and didn't know that Thompson would be there. The death was the result of a struggle over the defendant's gun, rather than an intent to hurt the new boyfriend, Salcido said.

``Baudilio had come to accept that Angela loved John Thompson. He couldn't accept his daughters (living) with Angela and John,'' Salcido said.

``He wanted Angela to fully realize what she had done by way of his pain, his hurt and the breakup of the family. He was going to commit suicide right there in that house, thinking that if he committed suicide in that house, then his daughters could never live there,'' the defense attorney added.

Salcido painted a picture of a couple who married as teen-agers but began to drift apart in 1995 when Angela Perez was attending the sheriff's academy. Shortly after graduation, she and Baudilio separated, and Angela moved with their two daughters to her parents' home.

``It was such a shock to him when, in April 1996, she told him it was over,'' Salcido said. In the year that followed, Baudilio attempted suicide a handful of times and periodically pestered his wife at work. ``He was hoping he could get her fired so she would come back to him and be the mother he wanted her to be'' to their two daughters, Salcido said.

On one of those occasions, deputies detained Baudilio and committed him to a hospital on a three-day psychiatric hold.

In her address, Lacey portrayed the defendant as a man very possessive and dependent on his wife, and very jealous that Angela had taken up with another man while they were still married.

``He told Angela: `It's not going to be over until I put a bullet in John's head,' '' Lacey said.

The day of the shooting, Perez had gone to work for several hours, left at noon to visit his younger daughter at elementary school and call his older daughter, who was home sick with Angela's mother.

Minutes later, Perez entered the Atwood Boulevard home and shot Thompson, 33, twice in the head as Angela stepped between the two men. A gunshot blast shattered her eardrums, and Baudilio Perez accidentally shot off his own index finger, Lacey said.

He fled the house, returned to work and then surrendered to authorities, the prosecutor added.

The first witness to testify Monday was Anna Riggs, the mother of Angela Perez and the first person alerted after the shooting. She recalled Angela's frantic plea for help.

``She was yelling on the phone. She said: `Mom, call Dad. Baudilio just shot John,' '' Riggs said. Upon learning what happened, her granddaughter ran distraught from the house, she added.

Riggs said she drove around the neighborhood searching for her granddaughter, and then decided to go to Angela's assistance. She found the woman outside the home, on the driveway.

``She was white as a ghost and covered with blood from top to bottom,'' Riggs said. ``I asked her how John was, and she said: `He's gone. There's nothing you can do about it,' '' she testified.

Riggs said that during the estrangement, she tried to assure her son-in-law that he would always be a member of the family and not to feel threatened by Thompson's new role in the lives of Angela and the two girls.

``I would tell him that the children only have one father and no one could replace him,'' she said.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

PHOTO (Color) The slaying trial of Baudilio Perez began Monday.

Phil McCarten/Daily News