San Diego

A Point Loma man accused of embedding an ax in his wife’s head was ordered Wednesday to stand trial for first-degree murder after a plea bargain fell apart in court.

Stanley F. Stress, 67, a retired real estate agent, was ordered by Municipal Court Judge Robert J. Cooney to appear in Superior Court for trial on May 7 in the Nov. 4 slaying of his 74-year-old wife, Phyllis.

John Eisele, a pathologist for the county coroner’s office, testified at Wednesday’s brief preliminary hearing that he found Mrs. Stress in an upstairs den of their home with the blade of an ax embedded 4 1/2 inches into her skull. Her husband apparently called police to report the slaying.

Before his preliminary hearing, Stress told Municipal Court Judge Wayne L. Peterson that he would plead guilty to second-degree murder. But Stress soon changed his mind as the judge began routine questioning to make sure Stress understood what he was doing.

Stress complained that his court-appointed attorney, Michael Popkins, had refused him the option of pleading to a manslaughter count. He complained that the proposed deal would result in a sentence “that’s still long enough for me to die in prison.”

“There was provocation,” Stress said of the slaying. “Not by my wife, but by the government. I was to appear before (a federal judge) the next day, and all he had been doing for two years was sending me to see psychiatrists.

“It got to the point that in the heat of passion something had to be done. It (the killing) was unfortunate, but there was provocation--it was in the heat of passion.”

The slaying occurred the day before Stress, who is in custody on $500,000 bail, was to appear at a competency hearing before U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving on a 1983 charge of mailing a threatening letter to President Reagan. That case is still pending.