By Nora Dahl and Isabelle Brady
MODESTO, CA– Judge Nancy Leo ordered defendant Henry Archuleta held to answer for his wife’s death on the charge of neglecting an elder after a preliminary hearing on Tuesday.
According to the doctor who performed an autopsy on Archuleta’s wife, “infection was the cause” of her death despite her many underlying health conditions.
The autopsy doctor likewise stated that he could not determine the cause of the infection.
Julia Gaspar, the nurse who visited Archuleta’s wife on Jan. 15, 2016, later testified that she lived at a motel. 
Gasper described Archuleta’s wife’s living situation as “not very clean…there was food products around…the walkways were clear, and everything else was just packed up high…with food and personal belongings.”
Gaspar further explained that Archuleta’s wife’s condition when she saw her was “very frail…she didn’t have much body fat or muscle tone.” Gaspar also added that she had “very poor oral care,” such that “her teeth were loose.”
Gaspar then testified that “she had a pull-up style brief” that had “very dry stool” in it.
“She had multiple unstageable pressure injuries,” Gaspar said.
“She had them on the tops of her hips on the back…on her outer hips, and on her ankles.”
Gaspar explained that pressure injuries (also called pressure ulcers) usually develop from “constant pressure on a bony prominence of the skin” when a person is not moved very much.
After speaking with her supervisor, Gasper stated they “sent out another nurse the next day, who then called for transportation to the emergency room.”
That nurse, Blanca Bell, was interviewed by a former detective of the Modesto Police Department, Steven Anderson.
Detective Anderson testified after Gaspar.
After checking Archuleta’s wife into the hospital, he said that Dr. Arun Manohagan told him that “the bed ulcers that she had had feces in them and had to be cleaned.”
Dr. Manohagan also told Detective Anderson “that she had sepsis, that the feces had entered the bloodstream through the skin, and that the type of infection she had” stemmed from a repeated issue.
According to Detective Anderson, Dr. Manohagan also said, “it was not looking good whether she was gonna survive or not.”
Detective Anderson also spoke to Archuleta on Feb. 11, 2016.
Archuleta confirmed that he was the deceased’s husband and that he was “paid $10 an hour to provide her care.”
He was paid through the In-Home Supportive Services Program.
When Detective Anderson asked about his late wife’s pressure ulcers and bedsores, Archuleta said that “she was bedridden so it was going to happen, and then he indicated that she had stopped doing her exercises.”
Per Detective Anderson’s testimony, Archuleta had a similar explanation for why there was feces in his wife’s pressure ulcers: “based on where the sores were, that was gonna happen…she soils herself, so it could happen.”
When asked why he did not place his wife in a place such as a care home, Detective Anderson testified that Archuleta said that “they had been down that route before, and he would not allow it.”
Archuleta then stated he “would consider it as long as he could stay there as well with her.”
Archuleta was arrested the next day, on Feb. 12, 2016.
His wife passed away a few weeks later.
After the preliminary hearing, Judge Leo held Archuleta to answer for the felony charges of neglect of an elder.
Archuleta waived time for his arraignment due to his attorney’s schedule and his living in Albuquerque.
His arraignment is set for Tuesday, Mar. 1.
