FULLERTON, Calif. — Neighbors saw Isidro Garcia as a doting father who liked to host parties at his home with the wife he adored.
But it was all a facade, according to prosecutors, who say the wife was 15 when he abducted her years earlier, forced her into marriage and threatened to have her deported if she dared leave.
On Thursday afternoon, the different portrayals will be presented to jurors in an Orange County courtroom as now-42-year-old Garcia stands trial on charges of rape, kidnapping and lewd acts on a child.
Garcia was arrested in 2014 after his wife told authorities that he had abducted her a decade earlier and forced her to stay with him. She met him shortly after arriving from Mexico to live in Santa Ana, Calif., with her mother, who was Garcia's girlfriend at the time.
During the trial, the woman is expected to testify that Garcia sexually abused her before kidnapping her after a family dispute. Initially she was kept in a garage and told she would be sent out of the country if she called the police.
But those who knew Garcia and his wife in more recent years can also provide accounts of the couple, who according to neighbors, seemed to be happily raising their young daughter in an apartment in an immigrant neighborhood