About 20 minutes before Brenda Morales and four family members were shot and killed at their Alameda home in 2024, Morales said she wanted to leave what had become an abusive relationship with her husband, Shane Killian, Morales’ uncle said in court Thursday.
Hector Morales testified during a preliminary hearing for Killian, 55, offering a possible motive in why he allegedly killed his family. Killian faces five counts of murder and other charges in the killings at the family’s Kitty Hawk Road home on the night of July 10, 2024, to which he pleaded not guilty.
In addition to Brenda Morales, Killian is charged with killing his and Morales’ sons, William Killian, 6, and Wesley Killian, 1; and his in-laws, Marta Morales-Diaz, 56, and Miguel Carcamo-Ramirez, 70. Brenda Morales and her mother died at the scene, and the three other victims died at a hospital…