Dad stabs mom to death; 3-year-old son was in the home (West Hartford, Connecticut)

Dad JOSE LACOUTURE is charged with murder for the killing of his wife, violating a protective order, and risk of injury to a minor. The last charge has to do with the fact that the couple's 3-year-old son was in the home at the time of the murder. Still think batterers--Lacoutre had a long history of domestic violence--can somehow be good fathers?

http://www.courant.com/news/domestic-violence/hc-west-hartford-murder-0817,0,5544457.story

West Hartford Woman Stabbed To Death; Husband Charged With Murder
By DAVID OWENS
The Hartford Courant
1:29 PM EDT, August 17, 2009
WEST HARTFORD

A 32-year-old man is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon and charged with killing his wife late Sunday at their home in the Elmwood section of town.

Jose Lacouture, of 118 Woodlawn St., is being held on $2.5 million bail on charges of murder, violation of a protective order and risk of injury to a minor.

West Hartford police Lt. Jeff Rose said that Lacouture stabbed his wife, Gina Lacouture, 23, to death Sunday night. Police were called to 118 Woodlawn St. at 11:50 p.m. for a report of an injured person.

When officers, firefighters and medics arrived, they found Gina Lacouture unresponsive, Rose said. They worked to revive her, and she was taken to Hartford Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 12:30 a.m. "They tried their best," Rose said.

Detectives were on Woodlawn Street through the night processing the home for evidence. The risk of injury charge was filed because the couple's 3-year-old son was in the home at the time of the crime, police said.

Lacouture has a record for domestic violence, according to state court records.

West Hartford police arrested him in July 2008 on charges of third-degree assault, unlawful restraint, interfering with police and disorderly conduct.

According to public records, Jose Lacouture was married before. He divorced his ex-wife, Orieta Lacouture, and two months later, married 19-year-old Gina Castro on Valentine's Day, 2005.

The couple bought a condominium on Redbud Lane in Glastonbury in March 2007 for $163,000.

At 12:30 this afternoon, police were still in Elmwood, at the small Cape with the mustard-colored siding. A neighbor, Paul Carreira, did not know the couple, but said the neighborhood is generally a quiet one.

"This is kind of shocking for us,'' said Carreira, who has lived on the street for the past 18 years.