EDGE San Francisco

A San Jose woman is facing a murder charge in the death of her wife’s mother.

Sagal Mohamod Sadiq, 40, has pleaded not guilty to killing Yvonne Marie Kirk, 65, with a machete.

The prosecutor in the case said that Kirk was the mother of Sadiq’s wife, Minema Kirk, 36, who was trying to end her relationship with Sadiq.

Sadiq’s next court hearing is today (Thursday, January 19) for identification of counsel.

According to San Jose Police Department statements, police received a 911 call at about 11 p.m. on December 30, and found two women suffering from an "apparent physical attack" at Sadiq and Minema Kirk’s home, 1994 Johnston Avenue.

Yvonne Kirk was pronounced dead at the scene. An ambulance took Sadiq to a hospital, where she was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and released, police said.

At first, police said the investigation of the incident "revealed that an unknown subject attacked the victims inside the residence using an edged weapon." Investigators recovered the machete at the scene, but initially, no suspect was found.

Sadiq was arrested in connection with the crime the next day, December 31. She was arraigned January 5 on a charge of murder and an allegation of using a dangerous and deadly weapon. She pleaded not guilty and is currently in custody without bail at Santa Clara County’s main jail in San Jose.

In an interview, Santa Clara County Assistant District Attorney Dan Fehderau said Minema Kirk was on vacation at the time her mother was killed. Through a friend, she declined to comment for this story. Fehderau said Kirk "is trying hard to cope with this tragedy in her life." (Details of the couple’s relationship were first published in the San Jose Mercury News.)

Fehderau said he didn’t know how long Sadiq and Kirk had been married, but he said they wed during the brief period same-sex marriages were legal in California. Citing information from police, Fehderau said Minema Kirk had reported that Sadiq had directed "prior incidents of domestic violence" toward her.

Attorneys Michael Cardoza and Leon Mezzetti, who have made a general appearance in court for Sadiq but aren’t her attorneys of record, according to Fehderau, weren’t available for comment.

’Mellow neighborhood’

Outside the small white house Sadiq and Kirk shared recently, flowers had been placed on the porch. A neighbor said that Kirk’s family had had a yard sale earlier in the day, and leftover books and other items sat behind a sign that said, "All Free."

All the lights in the house were off, and there was no answer to the doorbell.

Most neighbors declined to comment about the killing.

Keri Kingsborough, who lives across the street from Sadiq and Kirk’s house, said it’s "a very mellow neighborhood." She said she knows most of her neighbors, but she hadn’t seen the other women before she saw Sadiq the night of the incident.

Kingsborough said she saw Sadiq lying on the lawn as police talked to her, then shouting as she was being wheeled into an ambulance. She didn’t know what the other woman had been yelling.

Police had come to her door the night of the murder and asked if she’d seen a masked man in the area, Kingsborough said. When they came back later the same night, she said, "They indicated there were other things going on."