Wife claims husband killed cousin after argument: documents

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — A woman whose body was found in an almond orchard was killed by her cousin’s husband after a drunken argument, according to witness statements in sheriff’s reports.

Claudia Morales Vazquez, 33, was found dead last month in an almond orchard about a half-mile north of Superior Road and Stockdale Highway. She had suffered head trauma, according to reports filed in Superior Court that recently became available.

Investigators learned that Vazquez lived with her cousin Noralina Vasquez-Hernandez, 36, and the cousin’s husband, Jaime Regalado-Avalos, 43.

Regalado-Avalos is charged with first-degree murder. His wife, who was charged as an accessory, allegedly used bleach and other cleaning products to wipe down their Normandy Drive apartment after the murder, the files say.

The couple will have to appear in court again next month.

According to the files, a farm manager called police around 8:20 a.m. April 26 to report that a woman’s body had been found.

Thirty minutes later, police received another call – this one from Vazquez’s father, who said his daughter had called him in tears the night before and asked him to pick her up. The father told officers he went to the apartment where his daughter lived, but there was no response.

She also didn’t answer the phone, he said. He asked her to do a welfare check.

Officers believed Vazquez might be in danger and entered the apartment through a window. According to the reports, they immediately noticed a strong smell of bleach.

There was no one inside.

Shortly thereafter, officers and the father were informed of the discovery of a body near their location.

“During this time, a sudden feeling came over me and I wondered if the body found in the orchards was (Vazquez),” wrote an investigator.

This assumption was confirmed.

The search for Vasquez-Hernandez and Regalado-Avalos then began.

That afternoon, the couple was stopped by California Highway Patrol officers at a rest stop in Lebec. The couple’s children told investigators they were on their way to Mexico.

In a separate interview, the couple claimed there was an argument and Vazquez was kicked out, the records say. Regalado-Avalos told investigators he drove her to the Greyhound station and she left.

His wife said otherwise after investigators accused her of lying.

She said they started drinking that afternoon. Around 1 or 2 a.m., Vazquez began asking about the father of Vasquez-Hernandez’s daughters.

The father – not Regalado-Avalos – is part of their past and they shouldn’t talk about him, Vasquez-Hernandez said she told her cousin.

Regalado-Avalos became angry, she said, and asked Vazquez to leave. Her cousin continued to argue before she called her father and ran to the bathroom crying, Vasquez-Hernandez said, according to the reports.

The argument flared up again later, she said. Her cousin called her husband a “showoff” and he responded that she better not threaten him, Vasquez-Hernandez told investigators.

Regalado-Avalos broke her cousin’s cellphone, Vasquez-Hernandez said. He then told Vasquez-Hernandez to go to her bedroom and close the door, according to her statement in the files.

“(Her husband) said he was going to show (Vazquez) who he was,” Vasquez-Hernandez told investigators.

She went into her bedroom and closed the door. Then she heard heavy breathing – as if someone was gasping for air.

“Vasquez-Hernandez said she opened the door and saw (Vazquez) on her back on the floor,” an investigator wrote. “Regalado-Avalos stood over her and pressed his right foot on the left side of (Vazquez’s) neck.”

Vasquez-Hernandez said she removed her husband’s foot, but he grabbed a knife and ordered her to go back to the bedroom. She didn’t interfere any further.

Her husband later carried Vazquez out of the apartment, she told investigators. She said she didn’t believe Vazquez was dead – she believed her husband left her in an area where she would be found and helped.

“Vasquez-Hernandez said she did not know Regalado-Avalos was capable of such a thing,” an investigator wrote.