Domestic violence topped the docket today inside the Franklin County Courthouse.
Aaron Velasco
A Sister’s Slaying
In the chaotic cattle call of the criminal docket, corrections officers ushered in Aaron Velasco, built like a 28-year-old, but with a face of a teenager, a troubled or lost face. It’s hard to read the man at this point, which explains why the prosecutor and public defenders asked the judge to bring in state psychiatrists to exam Velasco’s mental state before the case moves forward.
Pasco Police arrested Velasco about a week and a half ago after he called 911 and told dispatchers he had just killed his sister. Officers found Magdalena Velasco-Garcia outside the family home, bleeding to death from several wounds.
We don’t know what may have led to Velasco-Garcia’s death. She was just 22.
Judge Vic Vanderschoor signed the order for the mental exam.
Tashia Stuart speaks with her attorney
In the same hour, across the hall in Courtroom Two, the attorney representing a woman accused of murdering her adopted mother wanted to know why the jail nurse is on the list of potential witnesses for the prosecution.
The defense says the nurse could end up “acting as an agent for the state.”
The nurse has had close contact with Tashia Stuart, giving Stuart her medication for asthma and migraines since Stuart moved into the jail in March.
Prosecutors will turn over the transcript of their interview with the nurse, and the defense attorney says he may ask Stuart be moved from Franklin County to Benton County jail.
Stuart claims self-defense in the death of her adopted mother. Prosecutors say the two had been arguing over money.
Most violent crimes are not random. The people involved usually know each other. Domestic violence is particularly tragic, don’t you think?
kevinshaub 
Kevin, I think Love and Hate are so closely aligned we often fail to see where the one ends and the other begins. People we love tend to be the very ones who hurt us. And when they do, some of us strike back, just to show them how much they hurt us. Fortunately, most of us use words — but they can be just as painful as a knife or speeding bullet. Two very tragic stories.
I have no idea what happened between brother and sister…but it looks to have affected him profoundly. There is never an excuse for murder, but I am glad to see he does not have the look of a cold blooded killer, and more like he is living his own hell.