California- Anna Ayala once kept a black magic shrine and slammed her husband’s ex-wife against a wall when the woman complained about his failure to pay child support, the ex-wife claimed in court records.
This portrayal of the woman accused of planting a finger in a bowl of Wendy’s chili was contained in court documents supporting the arrest of Ayala’s husband, Jaime P. Plascencia, at the couple’s Las Vegas home on Wednesday. Plascencia was charged with six felony counts, including failure to pay support for children from previous relationships with two San Jose women and allegedly stealing his young son’s identity to avoid having his wages garnished for child support.
The allegations of Ayala’s witchcraft and her husband’s serial philandering are just the latest twists in the bizarre whodunit swirling around the discovery of a human finger in the chili at a San Jose Wendy’s on March 22.
Plascencia, 43, is being held in jail in Clark County, Nev., awaiting extradition to California.
Ayala, 39, who was arrested April 21, has rejected as ridiculous charges that she rigged finding a fingertip in her chili in order to file a lawsuit against the Wendy’s chain to extract a financial settlement.
San Jose police have said Plascencia’s arrest was unrelated to the infamous finger investigation.
Court records supporting the arrest warrant for Plascencia say his failure to pay child support for four children dates back to at least 2001. Police state investigators didn’t learn of the alleged crimes until April 26 – – about a month after the finger claim cast Ayala into the glare of the national media.
Court records paint Plascencia as a womanizer who fathered five children with his first wife and a girlfriend — while carrying on a secret “double life” with both women. He also owed more than $433,000 in child support, according to court records.
Bertha Gaddi, a former girlfriend who said Plascencia fathered her three children, told investigators she thought he was single when they met in 1990. The San Jose woman said she believed him when he said he had to leave town about three days each week to work on a construction job.
But, she later “found out that (Plascencia) was leading a double life and was actually married to another woman and had children with her,” Gaddi told investigators in court records.
Gaddi said she later heard from a family friend that Plascencia had become involved with Ayala, who owned a San Jose janitorial service in the early 2000s. She said Plascencia was working for Ayala “under the table” to avoid having declared wages garnished for child support, according to court records.
Susana Plascencia, the suspect’s ex-wife, told investigators the couple had a daughter in 1988 and a son in 1994, but she learned soon after the boy’s birth that her husband was having an affair with another woman.
At one point, the ex-wife went to confront Plascencia about his failure to pay child support, saying she was struggling to feed and clothe their children. Susana Plascencia went to the San Jose home of her ex-husband’s parents, where he and Ayala were living in a backyard cottage.
“When (the ex-wife) entered the cottage, Ayala grabbed her by the arm and threw her against a wall,” Susana Plascencia told investigators. “(Susana Plascencia) said Ayala had some sort of ‘black magic’ shrine set up in a room of the cottage,” investigators wrote without elaborating.
“Since that time, (the ex-wife) has feared Ayala,” and for that reason avoided contact with Plascencia, investigators wrote.
Ayala’s criminal attorney, Rick Ehler, declined to comment on the allegations, calling the witchcraft claim “just too frickin’ weird.”
As for authorities arresting both Ayala and Plascencia, Ehler said: “I think they’re trying to sweat them” — increasing pressure on the suspects to cooperate with investigators.
This isn’t the first time Ayala has been accused of intimidating people. In 2001, a civil attorney who’d won her a settlement dropped Ayala as his client after he accused her of saying she was going to “get me,” according to court records.