Marital Woes Described at Murder Trial : Justice: Elisabeth Broderick says her problems coincided with ex-husband’s hiring of legal assistant, who became his second wife. She is charged with killing the couple.

SAN DIEGO —  Murder defendant Elisabeth Broderick on Tuesday tearfully recounted her failing marriage, saying her former husband’s criticisms of her as fat and boring coincided with his hiring of a young, blonde legal assistant.

Broderick, 42, is charged with fatally shooting her ex-husband, prominent medical malpractice lawyer Daniel Broderick III, 44, and his second wife, Linda Kolkena Broderick, 28, the legal assistant whom he married after divorcing Broderick.

In sobbing testimony, Elisabeth Broderick recounted her early years with her former husband as the two struggled to make ends meet while he went through law school and medical school.

The couple had four children, and Elisabeth Broderick testified that she constantly worked odd jobs at odd hours to help put her husband through school and support the family.

The couple settled in San Diego and Daniel Broderick went into private practice, eventually becoming very successful.

“His business was booming and blossoming. Both of us in 1982 were euphoric. We were celebrating,” she said. “We were just real happy. We didn’t have to worry anymore.”

But in 1983, Elisabeth Broderick said, marital problems surfaced. She said Daniel Broderick suddenly became more distant, aloof.

Later that fall, he hired Linda Kolkena, who had been a receptionist at the building that housed Daniel Broderick’s law office.

“When I found out who he had hired, I couldn’t believe it,” Broderick testified. “To my knowledge, Linda Kolkena didn’t have any experience as a legal secretary. She didn’t even know how to type and had never graduated from high school, I heard.”

She testified that she became angry when told her husband and Kolkena had been seen at restaurants together.

“I told him he had until Oct. 1 to get rid of that girl or get out of my home,” she said. “When Oct. 1 came around, he had not done anything and then he said I was crazy. Then he began telling me I was boring, older, heavier.

“I was very depressed and very upset. Dan’s opinion of me is all I cared about,” she said. “I lost weight. I tried to be perfect, absolutely, flawlessly perfect. He wanted me to be like I used to be when he met me.”

Elisabeth Broderick said her despair over the failing marriage drove her to a suicide attempt on her birthday in 1983 after her husband failed to show up for the celebration.

“After the kids went to bed I slit my wrists and swallowed every pill I could find in the house,” she said. “When Dan found me the next morning he started crying. He said he wished I hadn’t done that. He said there was nothing going on between him and Linda and that I was crazy. I wanted to believe him.”

She said that three weeks later, on his birthday, she got dressed up and took a bottle of champagne to his office, but she was told that Broderick and Kolkena had a small celebration in the office, had gone to lunch and never returned.

Later that evening, Elisabeth Broderick returned home, took some of her husband’s clothes from his closet and dresser, threw them onto the back yard, poured gasoline over them and lit them.

When Broderick returned home that evening, the couple argued.

“He was in shock. He swore up and down there was not and never had been anything with Linda Kolkena,” Broderick testified.

“I felt like an idiot and I believed him,” she said.

In the next two years, she testified, the family had to move out of their La Jolla home because of structural damage and moved into a rental home. Daniel Broderick later moved out, saying he needed time to himself.

Elisabeth Broderick testified that her husband usually handled financial matters.

Her attorney, Jack Earley, has tried to portray Daniel Broderick as shrewd and vindictive in attempting to financially cut off his wife, who was receiving $16,000 a month in support from her ex-husband.

The couple were divorced in 1986 and battled for the next three years over the custody of the two sons, Danny and Rhett, 13 and 10, respectively, at the time of the slayings.

Prosecutors, who rested their case Monday, have argued that Elisabeth Broderick killed the couple out of hate and revenge after a bitter divorce and custody battle during which she vandalized her ex-husband’s home and left vulgar messages on his answering machine.