Murder victim's doctor: Jose Perez likely couldn't hold thin knife
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- A doctor's testimony about a very sick and frail man could be an obstacle for attorneys defending a former Wake County teacher who claims she killed her husband in self-defense after he attacked her.
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During testimony Thursday, Robert Falge, a Veterans Administration doctor who specializes in very sick patients, rattled off a long list of illnesses suffered by 64-year-old Jose Perez.
Perez was found stabbed to death in a ditch near Falls Lake in June 2013. His wife, 48-year-old Joanna Madonna, is charged with his death on Father's Day weekend.
Madonna had told authorities that he attacked her after she asked for a divorce.
Investigators say Perez was stabbed with a knife given to Madonna by a relative for protection after she told the relative that there had been break-ins all around her home in Raleigh's Wakefield community.
However in opening statements, the prosecutor told jurors there had been no break-ins in the area.
She also indicated Perez may have been too weak to attack anyone, something his doctor backed up Thursday.
"He's among the most ill people I've seen that's been able to function for a number of years as opposed to dying quite quickly," Falge said.
He went on to say Perez was so frail that he had to have special forks and knives with built up handles and likely wouldn't have been able to hold the thin knife Madonna claimed she was attacked with.
Investigators have pointed out in search warrants that Madonna didn't call police when she felt threatened or to report killing her husband.
They said she left his body lying in the area of Old Bayleaf Road and Highway 98 and when confronted initially told investigators she didn't know where her husband was.
Grimes told jurors Tuesday that Madonna drove away thinking he was still alive and would go to the home of his Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor.
Authorities said she told them the 64-year-old left on foot with a suitcase to have an affair with another woman and had been hanging out with drug users.
According to officials, it was Madonna's children who provided police with early information that made her the prime suspect in the case.
Madonna reportedly worked as a translator for a Raleigh law firm. Prior to her arrest, Wake County Schools confirmed Madonna worked for the district as a substitute teacher from March 2009 to March 2013. She spent the entire 2011-2012 school year as a full-time Spanish teacher. She spent the last three months before leaving in March, as a special education teacher at Garner High School.
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