A mother testified she learned her lesbian daughter was dead in a startling phone call from “my daughter’s wife” when the woman confessed “I lost it” and killed her.
Heidi Alexander tearfully told a judge Oct. 16 Tiffany LaToya Nowden, 39, phoned her June 6 and told her Alexander’s daughter, Russina “Rusti” Vale, 38, was dead. Vale was stabbed to death.
“What did you do to my baby?” Alexander recalled asking Nowden.
“I lost it,” said Nowden three times, according to Alexander.
“I know you’ll not ever forgive me and you’re probably mad at me,” said Nowden to Alexander.
Alexander said she left a message with Nowden June 5 after her daughter’s employer called Alexander and said Vale had not showed up for work at the Barona Casino. Nowden returned her call, but what she said was unexpected.
Nowden told her San Diego Police was looking for her, and she was calling from a different cell phone. Nowden claimed Vale had cheated following their 2013 marriage. Vale sent out emails several months before her death that announced the marriage was over.
“I was so in shock. Some of what she said I couldn’t make out,” said Alexander.
Alexander said Nowden repeated a phrase, “they’re going to bury me” in a trial, which she said sounded odd, as she was realizing “I’m going to have to bury my daughter.”
After hearing testimony for nearly two days in the preliminary hearing, San Diego Superior Court Judge Jay Bloom ordered Nowden Oct. 17 to stand trial for murder.
Bloom ordered Nowden to next appear in court on Nov. 3 to set a trial date. She remains in the Las Colinas Women’s Detention Facility on $2 million bail.
Bloom cited Nowden’s call to Vale’s mother as evidence of guilt. He also said detectives testified there was no forced entry and the killer “had a key” to the apartment. Nowden’s attorney and the prosecutor submitted the case to Bloom without arguments.
Dr. Glenn Wagner, the chief medical examiner, testified Vale was killed by a sharp kitchen or butcher knife that went through her arm and into her chest. A major artery was cut, and she had a stomach wound. Her face was bruised.
Vale died unclothed in her bed where she was attacked in the couple’s apartment in the 7700 block of Mission Gorge Road. Wagner testified her body was covered by a maroon comforter and a cut in the comforter was apparently made by the knife.
Vale could have been asleep when she was attacked, said Wagner. She could have been alive for 15-30 minutes after she was stabbed, but he said she probably died June 4 or June 5.
“I want the dogs,” Alexander said she told Nowden, referring to the couple’s two dogs which Nowden acknowledged she had in her possession.
“That’s all I have left of her,” replied Nowden, according to Alexander.
Zametta Moloi, Nowden’s aunt, said she stayed at her San Bernardino home for several days with her dogs, but didn’t know her niece was wanted for murder. Moloi said Nowden mentioned she needed an attorney but had added it was for a ticket.
“She looked fine. She was not in hysteria,” said Moloi. “She said a lot was going through her head.”
Zabina Reynolds, who testified she was Nowden’s best friend and lives in Oxnard, said Nowden phoned her around 6-7 a.m. June 5 and asked her to come down to San Diego to be with her.
“She was distraught. Very soft spoken. She sounded like she was crying,” said Reynolds.
Reynolds said when she did visit with Nowden at a Market Street residence later, “she looked very fatigued. She looked worn down.” Reynolds said she drove Nowden to an attorney’s office, but she didn’t go in there with her.
However, Nowden did not surrender immediately, and was arrested June 24 in a home on Market Street in Sherman Heights. Her attorney will be requesting a bail reduction on Nov. 3. Nowden has pleaded not guilty.
