Monterey, CA: Charges being filed against woman accused of killing Salinas lawyer

BY SUNITA VIJAYAN • SVIJAYAN@THECALIFORNIAN.COM • SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

A Monterey County judge delayed this afternoon the arraignment of a Salinas woman accused of killing an attorney last month.

The arraignment has been postponed to 1:30 p.m. Thursday so that Verginia Turner is able to hire an attorney.

The county's District Attorney's Office charged Turner this morning with murder.

The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office said prosecutors are filing murder charges today against a 42-year-old woman arrested last week on suspicion of killing a Salinas lawyer.

The District Attorney’s Office said Verginia Turner is expected to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. today.

Turner is accused of killing 58-year-old Mark Hafen, a family court attorney. Hafen was found Wednesday after his work associates asked police to conduct a welfare check at his home on 760 Carmelita Drive in south Salinas.

Police said family members brought Turner, an off-and-on girlfriend of Hafen’s, to the police station on Thursday and was subsequently questioned. She was then booked into Monterey County Jail.

Her bail is set at $1 million.

Police have said that Hafen possibly died from some sort of head trauma.