Ersilia Cataldo-Matarazzo. (Katy Rogers Photography)
BOSTON (WBZ-AM) -- Prosecutors described a disturbing pattern of domestic violence they said led to the shooting death of an Everett woman by her estranged husband this week.
Ersilia Cataldo-Matarazzo, 50, was found with multiple gunshot wounds in her car in the driveway of her parents' Central Street home around 8:40 a.m. Wednesday. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Her husband, Emilio Matarazzo, 55 of Peabody, turned himself in to Everett Police just hours later.
"He was greeted by the police, they asked him how it was going," a prosecutor told a Malden District courtroom Thursday morning. "He responded, 'Not good.'"
Emilio was charged in his wife's murder. A plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf, and he was ordered held without bail. He's due back in court January 18.
They had been married thirty years, and had three children. But during Emilio's arraignment, prosecutors explained that the violence in the Matarazzo marriage began long before it ended in that driveway.
Flanked by two court officers and wearing a bulletproof vest, Matarazzo calmly watched as the prosecutor painted a picture of him as a man out of control, whose wife alleged physical and emotional abuse and had left, telling friends she was afraid of him.
In one incident, Ersilia had said Emilio tried to strangle and scratch her.
"When Mr. Matarazzo was confronted about that incident by his daughter, he indicated that he just snapped," the prosecutor said.
He also allegedly was convinced Ersilia was having an affair.
"Family members recall that Mrs. Ersilia Matarazzo had told them that this defendant had previously taken her to the grave of her deceased brother and made her swear on the grave that she wasn't having an affair," the prosecutor said.
Prosecutors said Matarazzo tried to win his wife back with gifts, including a check for $20,000. She returned them. At the time of her murder, Ersilia was staying at her parent's home in Everett, Emilio at the family home in Peabody.
In the latest of a series of incidents prosecutors described, Emilio confronted Ersilia Tuesday night at a Christmas party at St. Anthony's Church in Everett.
"He became angry and made a scene," the prosecutor said. "He refused at first to leave but ultimately did leave, and Mrs. Ersilia Matarazzo expressed a significant amount of fear from him that night and had actually hidden herself in the church."
As Ersilia sat in her car in her parents' driveway the next morning, a man approached her car, firing into the driver's side. Prosecutors described how Ersilia's mother ran out of the house to try to save her, screaming.
Police arrived within three minutes, finding six shotgun shells.
Prosecutors allege Emilio Matarazzo spoke to his adult son after the murder, saying, "what's done is done."
WBZ NewsRadio's Karyn Regal (@Karynregal) reports