District Attorney Mulls Torture Charge In Orinda Homicide

A prosecutor trying the case of an Orinda man charged with the murder of his live-in girlfriend in the Moraga Way home they shared may add another charge -- torture -- in light of wounds inflicted on the victim before her death.

Deputy District Attorney Mary Knox said crime scene evidence shows that 62-year-old James Collin landed several blows when he allegedly attacked Evangeline Devera, 56, with a machete last month.

Some of the wounds appear to have been defensive in nature, investigators said, as Devera fought her attacker before suffering a final, fatal blow to the head. Police found Devera face down in the couple's kitchen in the 600 block of Moraga Way the afternoon of June 26.

A machete believed used in the killing was found nearby. Collin went to a neighbor's home to ask that police be called and surrendered without incident to officers arriving at the scene, allegedly making statements of responsibility for the murder as he surrendered.

Court documents indicate that the couple had a troubled history, with Collin arrested and chaged with misdemeanor domestic battery for assaulting Devera in 2006, Knox said.

He pleaded no contest to the charges and was sentenced to probation. Knox said that prosecutors hope to reach a decision on the torture charge next week.

Collin is scheduled to enter a plea to the murder charge in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez next Thursday.