Domestic Slaying Sent to Grand Jury

A 52-year-old Fairfax County woman spray-painted a long diatribe about her husband on their driveway, starting with the words "Hey Ron, stress kills," before fatally shooting him in the head during a struggle in their home, a prosecutor said yesterday.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Kyle Manikas said that showed Marysusan Giguere's malice, a necessary element to prove murder. A police officer testified that Giguere said that the gun she used to kill her husband, Ronald Giguere, 60, was hers and "was always kept unloaded but that it just happened to be loaded that night."

After the preliminary hearing at Fairfax Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, Judge Janine M. Saxe found probable cause that Marysusan Giguere had committed murder and sent the case to the grand jury for possible indictment.

The county's public defender had been representing Giguere until shortly before the hearing, when lawyers Peter D. Greenspun and Jonathan Shapiro, whose high-profile clients have included sniper John Allen Muhammad and sportscaster Marv Albert, said they were hired to represent her.

After the hearing, Shapiro and his associate, Christie A. Leary, questioned why Giguere faced a murder prosecution.

"By the commonwealth's own evidence," Leary said, "she was acting in self-defense."

Much of the prosecution's evidence presented during the hearing came from Marysusan Giguere's statements to the first officer at the scene. She did not testify.

Giguere called police shortly before 2 a.m. March 3 and told them that she had killed her husband, according to testimony yesterday. Police found Ronald Giguere lying dead in a bathroom across the hall from the couple's bedroom. The Gigueres and their sons, ages 12 and 14, lived on Crowell Road near Hunter Mill Road just outside Reston.

The first officer to arrive at the home, Kimberly Folden, recounted what Marysusan Giguere told her that morning, which detectives have previously revealed in court papers: that she was attacked by her husband, first with a hammer; that he then went for a gun; and that she was able to wrest it away and fire one fatal shot.

Folden said Giguere "was crying and she said she was sorry" as they began speaking. According to the officer: Giguere said her husband would not let her attend a son's basketball game that night, even though she had begged him; when he left for the game, she spray-painted the sexually explicit message on their driveway.

Folden testified that Giguere told her that when her husband, a manager with the Federal Highway Administration, returned home, the two argued about trips he took without her. Giguere said her husband had hit her several times in the face, then pointed to an eye and asked the officer whether it was red or swollen. Folden said it did not appear to be.

Giguere said that she fled to the basement and that her husband forced his way into a room and swung a hammer at her, which she blocked with her forearm, Folden said. She then ran upstairs to their bedroom, followed by her husband, and he grabbed her gun. The struggle moved into the adjacent hallway, and she was able to grab it and fire one time, Folden testified.

Although the Gigueres jointly owned their home, the court appointed the public defender because it was unclear what assets were available to Marysusan Giguere, particularly if she were to be convicted of murder. Convicted murderers cannot profit from their crime under Virginia law. Leary and Shapiro, who was also present yesterday, declined to comment on how Giguere would be able to pay them. Leary asked Saxe to postpone the hearing because her firm had just been hired, but Saxe declined, saying the case was two months old and needed to proceed.