San Jose nurse charged with machete-murder of wife's mother in Willow Glen

By Sean Webby and Lisa FernandezStaff writers
Jan 05, 2012
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Minema Kirk was done. She wanted to end her three-year marriage with her wife, Sagal Sadiq.

On Dec. 30, she sent a text from Puerto Rico with a simple message: "Done."

Back in San Jose that night, the spurned Sadiq exploded, according to police documents. Within reach was Kirk's mother, Yvonne. And a machete.

Escorted by a bailiff, Sagal Sadiq enters courtroom to be arraigned on charges of... (LiPo Ching)

When the Somali native and longtime nurse was through with her bloody rampage, police said, Yvonne Kirk, 65, had been hacked to death in the Willow Glen bungalow. And a slightly wounded Sadiq was trying to fool investigators that they both had been attacked by a masked man.

"Trying to get power and control is a common motivator for violence directed against an intimate partner or their family members," said prosecutor Dan Fehderau. "I expect the evidence will show that this is a particularly horrifying example of that."

The police report released Thursday
-- the same day Sadiq was arraigned on a murder charge -- details a horrific domestic violence case. Sadiq, whose left arm was wrapped in a bandage, said nothing at her court hearing, which some of her family attended. Her high-profile Walnut Creek attorney, Michael Cardoza, said afterward that his client is "frightened and a little depressed, but that's expected in a situation like this."

Sadiq did not enter a plea, and the case was continued until Jan. 19. Judge Jerome Nadler ordered Sadiq not to communicate with Minema Kirk, which the prosecutor said she had tried to do from jail, where she is being held without bail.Continued