A trial date of April 13, 2015 has been set for Tiffany LaToya Nowden, who is accused of stabbing her wife, Russina Vale, to death in their bed in their San Carlos home.
Nowden, 39, appeared Nov. 3 in San Diego Superior Court and received the trial date several weeks after being ordered to stand trial for murder in her preliminary hearing. She pleaded not guilty.
Vale, 38, was found dead in bed June 5 in the Mission Gorge Road apartment. She had been stabbed through her arm and into her chest. It could have occurred while she was asleep as a witness said there was a puncture through the bedspread.
The couple’s two dogs still have not been found, said Deputy District Attorney Lindsey Carinci Nov. 6.
The victim’s mother, Heidi Alexander, testified Oct. 16 that Nowden told her she had killed her daughter. Alexander quoted Nowden as saying “I lost it” three times as an explanation.
Alexander testified she asked Nowden if she had the dogs, and Nowden said yes, adding “that’s all I have left of her.” An aunt of Nowden testified she and the dogs stayed with her in San Bernardino a week after the slaying, but that she did not know Nowden was wanted for murder.
Nowden and Vale got married in 2013, but Vale sent out an email to her family and friends announcing the marriage was over around April. Vale worked at the Barona Casino.
The U.S. Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force arrested Nowden June 24 at a residence in the 2200 block of Market Street in Sherman Heights. She remains in the Las Colinas Women’s Detention Facility on $2 million bail.
