Blackhawk man pleads guilty to killing wife with hammer

A Blackhawk man charged with brutally killing his wife in their home last year pleaded guilty earlier this week to committing the crime, changing his plea weeks before his trial was set to start — and making what attorneys on both sides described as an unexpected apology in court.

John Tercheria, 71, pleaded guilty to charges of voluntary manslaughter, elder abuse and domestic violence with use of a weapon and infliction of bodily harm, for beating his longtime wife, Linda Marie Tercheria, with a hammer almost a year and a half ago.

He has been sentenced to jail for 17 years and four months — enough time “to make it pretty likely” that he will die in prison, or at least well into his 80s if released, said Contra Costa County deputy district attorney Chris Walpole, who prosecuted the case.

During his sentencing hearing Tuesday and after listening to the testimony of two friends of his former wife, Tercheria requested permission to speak on his own behalf, and according to Walpole, apologized and said he was “sorry for what he did.”

“It was not planned, not scripted — spontaneous, brief and to the point,” said William Gagen, Tercheria’s attorney.

Within the next few weeks, Tercheria will be transferred to San Quentin State Prison, where his placement for the duration of his sentence will be determined, Gagen said.

The crime itself unfolded in August 2016. On the afternoon of Aug. 7, 2016, Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputies found the body of Linda Marie Tercheria, 69, while they were responding to a suspicious circumstance report at the couple’s home in the 4300 block of Quail Run Lane.

She had suffered more than 20 blows to the head from a hammer recovered by investigators, according to Walpole.

Tercheria was arrested early the next morning, initially pleading not guilty. He posted the $1 million bail that afternoon, but was detained once again after sheriff’s deputies obtained a new arrest warrant for him in light of subsequent investigation, according to the sheriff’s office.

Tercheria was set to be tried on murder charges on Jan. 22., Gagen said, before he confessed and accepted the plea deal.

It came out over the course of the investigation, Walpole said, that Tercheria had been involved in an affair with a younger woman before his wife’s death, giving him a potential motive for the murder.

“They’re always sad cases, it was a senseless killing,” Walpole said. After listening to the testimony of the victims’ friends, he said, “it seemed like (Tercheria’s) ego and his own selfishness really got the best of him.”

However, Gagen said the defense had “very solid medical information that he was showing signs of early dementia,” and that, combined with Tercheria’s frequent steroid injection, had potentially led him to murder his wife.

“It was the end of a horribly sad case, with two people who certainly seemed to be decent people,” Gagen said. “Something happened that morning of Aug. 7. The way his wife died was terrible.”

Tercheria was an accomplished senior softball player and had briefly played minor league baseball. He has three adult children, two sons from a previous marriage and one daughter with Linda Tercheria.