Elderly UP man killed wife with hammer because he thought she was unfaithful, records say
A 78-year-old University Place man killed his wife because he believed she was unfaithful and disrespectful, according to court documents.
Investigators believe James Flora repeatedly hit Ella Flora, 74, in the head with a hammer and put plastic wrap over her mouth and nose until she stopped breathing.
On Thursday, Pierce County prosecutors charged Flora with first-degree murder.
He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning.
Flora walked into Tacoma General Hospital about 1 p.m. Monday and asked someone to check on his wife because he had choked her.
Sheriff’s deputies went to the couple’s home in the 5600 block of 61st Avenue West and crawled through a window since nobody answered the door.
Ella Flora’s body was found against a back wall of the house.
She died of a blunt force head injury, according to the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Flora returned home while deputies were on scene and was taken into custody.
Charging papers give this account of the homicide:
Neighbors told detectives the Floras were often yelling at each other, and there was a lot of screaming and banging heard Sunday night.
James Flora claimed his wife had been cheating on him for years. Although he did not provide specifics, he said he “knew it was occurring,” prosecutors wrote in charging papers.
On Sunday night, they started fighting after Ella Flora allegedly sneezed into his dinner. They went their separate ways and James Flora fell asleep in a chair.
He said he awoke to his wife trying to cut his dialysis tube and slit his wrist.
James Flora went to the bathroom to tend to two cuts on his arm and returned with a hammer.
“He continued to strike her with the hammer and said that he could not stop,” records say. “When asked why he was hitting his wife with the hammer, he stated that it was because his wife was a ‘ho.’”
To cut down on the noise Ella Flora made during the attack, her husband said he placed plastic wrap around her nose and mouth.
“He also stated that he was sorry, but ‘a man can only take so much disrespect,’” records say.
A bloody hammer was found underneath a china hutch in the couple’s home.
This story was originally published August 6, 2020 at 12:31 PM.
