Firefighter Denies Killing Wife In Axe Murder Case: LA County DA

LOS ANGELES, CA — A Glendale firefighter accused of bludgeoning his wife to death at their San Fernando Valley home earlier this year pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a murder charge.

Andrew Jimenez, 45, who remains jailed without bail, was scheduled to return to court in downtown Los Angeles May 12, when a date will be sent for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence for him to stand trial.

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Jimenez is charged with one count of murder with an allegation of using an axe as a deadly weapon in connection with the death of his wife, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.

His wife, Mayra Jimenez, was a teacher at Wilshire Park Elementary School in Los Angeles.

Jimenez, a firefighter and paramedic for the Glendale Fire Department, was placed on administrative leave shortly after his wife's death, city officials said.

Jimenez walked into the LAPD's Northeast Community Police Station on San Fernando Road in Glassell Park at around 4 a.m. Jan. 21 and asked that officers conduct a welfare check on his wife at their home on the 5600 block of Satsuma Avenue in North Hollywood, the Los Angeles Police Department said.

In conducting the welfare check, police entered the couple's home to find his wife dead with injuries consistent with blunt force trauma, police said.

"Homicide investigators conducted interviews, reviewed videos, and processed the crime scene. Their investigation revealed that the victim and suspect were in a marital relationship and that this was an incident of domestic violence," the LAPD said.

The suspect had apparently found out his wife was cheating on him "moments" before the killing, according to attorney Jose Romero, who was representing Jimenez at the time of his arrest but is no longer on the case.

"Our office is currently in contact with law enforcement regarding a diary of the decedent, apparently read moments before the homicide, that verified infidelity by the decedent," Romero told various media outlets in a statement in January. He said Jimenez was a "veteran of the Pacific Palisades fire."

District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement the case is a "devastating reminder of the persistent scourge of intimate partner violence in our communities."

City News Service contributed to this report.