NY - Taisha Camacho, 19, found murdered, Brooklyn, 4 May 2003

Can a wife rat out her husband in a murder case?
A Bronx judge is set to decide today whether a woman can testify against her husband, who is accused of killing his 19-year-old paramour two years ago.

Rafael Cajigas, 34 — who maintains his innocence — allegedly told his wife, Michelle, something about the slaying. And the wife is willing to tell a jury about it. But the two have been estranged for years.

http://nypost.com/2005/09/26/bronx-slay-suspect-is-facing-wife/

I was always under the impression that a wife could not be forced/coerced to testify against her husband, but she may if she wishes.

Pandora said:

I was always under the impression that a wife could not be forced/coerced to testify against her husband, but she may if she wishes.

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The article says she is willing. I suspect it is some kind of defense strategy, doesn't mean it will work.

The mother of a teenage girl whose body was so badly burned that she could be identified only by a necklace says she can't wait to face her daughter's accused killer in court.
Diana Cuadrado is expected to be the first prosecution witness called in the murder trial of Rafael Cajigas, set to open today in Bronx Supreme Court.

Cajigas, 34, is charged with strangling Taisha Camacho, 19, on May 4, 2003, in the Bronx apartment they'd shared for a month and taking the body to Brooklyn and setting fire to it.

"I am going to be up there like cats and dogs," Cuadrado said. "When I see his face, it's going to give me so much courage I'm going to talk as strong as I can, as mad as I can. He broke my heart and took half of it with him."
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/28902.htm

By Andrea Elliott (NYT); Compiled by Karin Roberts
Published: January 29, 2004

A Bronx man has been arrested in connection with two unrelated killings in the last two years, including that of a young woman who was found burned to death in a Brooklyn parking lot in May, police officials said yesterday. The man, Rafael Cajigas, 33, was charged with two counts of second-degree murder on Tuesday in the deaths of Taisha Camacho, 19, who the police said was his girlfriend, and Omar Pena, 21, an acquaintance who the police said Mr. Cajigas intentionally ran over with an S.U.V. on a Bronx street in February 2002. In both cases, the police said, Mr. Cajigas had a prior dispute with the victims. The police said they believed that Mr. Cajigas strangled Ms. Camacho in the Brooklyn apartment they shared at the time, then set her body on fire in a parking lot in Sunset Park. In the hit-and-run case, Mr. Pena and another man, Luis Turnbull, 28, were struck while walking on Westchester Avenue. Mr. Turnbull survived. Andrea Elliott (NYT)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/29/nyregion/metro-briefing-new-york-bronx-arrest-in-two-killings.html

I'm not finding much on this guy. He is in federal custody and is held at The New York Metropolitan Correction Center with an Unknown Projected Release Date. Not sure if this is an unfinished case or if it is an LWOP. Unable to locate any court records either.

From October 2005:

http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/bronx-beau-acquitted-girlfriend-03-slay-article-1.581662

A Bronx man accused of strangling his girlfriend and setting her body on fire was acquitted of all charges yesterday. The victim, Taisha Camacho, 19, was last seen May 4, 2003, when she left the Bronx apartment she shared with the defendant, Rafael Cajigas, 34.

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