San Mateo County domestic violence victim identified, new program announced to help survivors

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - San Mateo County Sheriff’s and Redwood City Police say they’ve identified a woman stabbed to death by her husband Sunday night. The husband is in custody and has been charged with murder.

"On Sunday night, he came home. He tried to woo her basically, saying let’s be a romantic couple again, and she just said no. Absolutely, not," San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe, said. 

Fifty-seven-year-old Juan Antonio Garcia has been charged with murdering his wife of 13 years, 33-year-old Odilia Borhsicajau on Sunday night. Wagstaffe says Garcia told police that after his wife told him their marriage was over, he grabbed a kitchen knife, went back to their bedroom and began stabbing his wife, striking her in the face, neck and chest.

"I’ve been watching domestic violence for over 40 years occur again and again. We make great efforts in society to stop it, and we will continue to do so, but we’re not solving the problem," said Wagstaffe. 

Wagstaffe says there were no children in the home at the time of the murder, but he says Borhsicajau was a mother of six children, all of them living in Guatemala with their grandmother. The D.A. says there were five domestic violence deaths in the county last year and there have been three so far this year. To address the issue, the county board of supervisors voted Tuesday to create a guaranteed income pilot program for domestic abuse survivors.

"The most important criteria that they have to meet, is to make sure that they are away from the person that has abused them," said David Canepa, Board President of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.

Board Pres. David Canepa says 20 survivors will be allotted $1,000 per month for a year. Advocacy group CORA worked with the county to create the program and says recent data from Los Angeles shows that guaranteed income can help survivors.  

"They were able to secure housing, stay housed, avoid homelessness and successfully flee that abusive situation," said Lynn Schuette, with CORA, a domestic violence advocacy group. 

Canepa says the pilot program starts in January and will be paid for with Measure K funds. The D.A. also says Garcia had no criminal record but could face 26 years to life if he’s convicted of murder.