Anaheim, CA: Prosecutor says husband killed wife to keep kids William Mordick is on trial for the 1983 slaying. One of his daughters is expected to te

By RACHANEE SRISAVASDI
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
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SANTA ANA – A husband who feared separation from his two daughters and didn’t want to pay child support murdered his estranged wife 26 years ago, a prosecutor said today.

William Gregory Mordick, now 63, is on trial for murdering his wife, Katherine O’Connell Mordick, at her Anaheim Hills home on Jan. 22, 1983. Prosecutors say the crime was committed for financial gain, meaning that if he is convicted, Mordick could be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

During opening statements, Deputy District Attorney Dan Wagner said Mordick’s motive was to keep custody of his daughters, ages 2 and 4 at the time, and avoid paying the $650 monthly child support payments. He was supposed to attend a divorce proceeding five days after the slaying.

“He didn't want to be separated from his girls and the divorce was going to do that,’’ Wagner said.

On the day of the murder, Mordick drove to his wife's home to pick up his daughters, Wagner said. He left the girls in the car while he went back inside the house, where he slashed his wife’s throat, Wagner said.

Police interviewed Mordick after the crime.

“When asked if he killed his wife, Mordick replied, ‘No, she was too beautiful for that,’” Wagner said.

Wagner read some of Mordick’s journal entries to jurors.

Ten days before the murder, Mordick wrote “I need a lot of money to pay for kids and my separation,”

In another entry three months before the murder, Mordick wrote: “The cruelest thing Kitty has done is to separate me from those beautiful girls. They have been my life.”

Prosecutors base their case against Mordick on DNA evidence.

Police at the time took a blood sample from Mordick, who later moved to Spokane, Wash., with his two young daughters, where he became a well-known photographer, police said.

DNA technology not available at the time of the crime eventually led to Mordick’s arrest on Feb. 6, 2008, at his Spokane home.

Wagner told jurors that blood taken from a doorknob and a closet in the victim’s home link Mordick to the crime.

Mordick’s defense attorney, Jack Earley, discounted the match.

“The fact that you have DNA of Mr. Mordick doesn’t really mean much,’’ he said during opening statements. “It’s not on her body, it’s not on her clothes.”

The DNA evidence, as well as evidence from independent witnesses, point suspicion away from Mordick, Earley said.

“Mr. Mordick’s actions … points to the fact that he is innocent. He is an innocent man,’’ he said.

The trial, which is being held in the courtroom of Orange County Superior Court Judge James Marion, is expected to last approximately a month. One of Mordick’s daughters, Elise Mordick Hebb, is expected to testify, Wagner said.