Lawyers were scheduled to begin opening statements this morning
in a murder trial for Kyung Kim, a Gilroy woman accused of paying a
Hollister hit man to kill her husband.
GILROY –– Lawyers were scheduled to begin opening statements this morning in a murder trial for Kyung Kim, a Gilroy woman accused of paying a Hollister hit man to kill her husband.
Kim’s attorney, David Epps, and prosecutor Peter Waite picked the jury Wednesday and Thursday. By comparison, jury selection took 12 weeks for the highly publicized Scott Peterson murder trial.
Waite and Epps both expect Kim’s trial to be finished in two to three weeks. Kim, 47, has been in county jail since her arrest in June 2001.
Kim has said she never asked anyone to kill her husband, Young Kim. She has admitted she paid tens of thousands of dollars to convicted killer Gustavo Covian after Young Kim disappeared, but she also says Covian threatened to kill her and her children if she didn’t pay.
Young Kim’s body has never been found, and Epps may dispute whether he is dead. Young Kim was last seen on Nov. 13, 1998, in front of the couple’s Rancho Hills Drive home. Epps has suggested he might have fled to Mexico with a mistress.
The Kims owned the Gavilan Restaurant at 6120 Monterey St. near U.S. Highway 101, now operating as the Sunrise Cafe.
Bitterness had overcome the Kims’ 24-year marriage, arranged by family in their native Korea. Both had extramarital affairs, according to police reports, and police found divorce papers and a divorce cost estimate in the glove compartment of Young Kim’s car after he vanished.
Kyung Kim waited 16 days before reporting her husband’s disappearance to Gilroy police.
Police concluded that Young Kim was dead, the victim of a murder conspiracy by Kyung Kim and three members of the Covian family of Hollister: Gustavo, the alleged triggerman; his then-wife Maria Zapian, who allegedly passed messages from Kyung Kim to Gustavo; and Gustavo’s younger brother Ignacio, who police say helped carry out the killing. All were arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
A jury found Gustavo Covian guilty in February 2003. He is now serving a life sentence without parole in Soledad but is appealing the conviction. Ignacio Covian, 32, and Zapian, 29, accepted plea bargains this spring. Both are serving prison sentences for voluntary manslaughter.