Gunshots jolted an Agoura Hills neighborhood on New Year's Eve, resulting in the death of a 44-year-old resident said to be killed by his wife in a domestic dispute.

April Soma, 44, was arrested by sheriff's deputies last Friday in the fatal shooting of her 34-year-old husband, Michael Soma. Deputies arrested Soma at her home in the 28000 block of Via Amistosa in Agoura Hills shortly after the incident.

According to Dep. Ron Bottomley of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Headquarter Bureau, sheriffs from the Lost Hills/Malibu station responded to a call at 9:50 p.m. on Dec. 31. Bottomley said the shooting was the result of an altercation between the couple and that Michael Soma had been shot several times with a handgun. He was pronounced dead at the scene. April Soma was arraigned Tuesday and pleaded not guilty.

Leslie Burson-Putney, a Via Amistosa resident who lives across the street from the Somas, said she thought she heard a loud noise at the time of the shooting, but said the pop could have been generated by noise makers at a nearby New Year's Eve celebration, or by the wind and rain.

"I avoided (April) like the plague," one neighbor said.

Another resident said the couple "didn't fit" into the neighborhood. The neighbor characterized the Via Amistosa neighborhood as a "tight-knit" group and said the Somas rarely attended local gatherings, such as block parties.

Sources said the couple had a long history of problems, including mental illness and drug abuse.

"She told me all kinds of scary stories about herself," the neighbor said.