Many of the prosecution’s claims of violent intimidation by
Hollister’s Gustavo Covian
– the alleged hit man on trial in connection with the 1998
disappearance of a Gilroy restaurant owner Young Kim – were
witnessed first-hand by a jury Thursday.
SANTA CLARA – Many of the prosecution’s claims of violent intimidation by Hollister’s Gustavo Covian – the alleged hit man on trial in connection with the 1998 disappearance of a Gilroy restaurant owner Young Kim – were witnessed first-hand by a jury Thursday.
Covian barked angry threats in Spanish at one of the witnesses taking the stand during the third day of the trial.
It was the first time the incarcerated, 39-year-old Covian – a man the prosecution had called intimidating, dangerous and violent – had lost his cool since the trial began Tuesday. During the previous days, Covian, clean-cut and dressed in a button-down shirt and dress pants without a belt, remained reserved and stern during testimony.
Thursday’s outburst came as Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Peter Waite questioned Jesus “Chuy” Estrada, a former cook and drinking buddy of Young Kim’s at his Gavilan Restaurant at 6120 Monterey Road. Estrada was the last person to report seeing Kim.
Estrada was explaining to Waite how Covian would come into the restaurant after the Nov. 13, 1998, disappearance of Kim asking to talk to Kyung Kim – Young Kim’s wife who the prosecution claims hired Covian to murder her husband – and would then eat without paying, make statements that he now owned the place and try to intimidate the employees.
“How would (Covian) act when he came into the restaurant?” Waite asked the small-bodied, soft-spoken, middle-aged Estrada through a Spanish interpreter.
At the question Covian starred down Estrada from across the room, raised his uncuffed hands to his throat – possibly to signify the slitting of the throat – and barked a load command in Spanish.
Covian’s attorney Thomas Worthington quickly reprimanded his client, and Estrada stared at the floor until the questioning began again.
Estrada would go on to say how Covian called him from the kitchen one day and showed him a gun he had in his waistband.
“He was trying to scare us,” Estrada said. “I was not scared, but the waitresses were. … He said he was our boss now.”
Estrada also spoke of the last time he saw Young Kim, when he followed him home from the restaurant around 10 p.m. that Friday the 13th, saw him park his car in the garage, close the door and then never emerge from the house.
Estrada will face cross-examination from Worthington today.
If convicted of being the hired gun in the saga twisted with alleged murder, extortion, extra-marital affairs, an abusive arranged marriage and a still-missing body, Covian could face life in jail without parole.
Gustavo Covian, his now ex-wife and mother to three of his children, Maria Covian, 28; Gustavo’s brother Ignacio, 31; and Kyung Kim, 46; all are charged with involvement in the disappearance and suspected murder of 49-year-old Young Kim, Kyung Kim’s husband of 24 and father of her two children.
All four defendants are facing first-degree murder charges and have been in custody in county jail since 2001. The other defendants – none of who can legally testify in the current trial – will go to trial following Gustavo Covian.
Three other witnesses also testified Thursday, including two of Maria Covian’s sisters – who spoke about the financial situation of the couple – and a friend and neighbor of Young Kim’s on Rancho Hills Drive, Mauro Sanchez.
Sanchez claimed on the night that Young Kim was last seen they had plans to go drinking and play pool in Watsonville, but Young Kim never showed up.
He also described accompanying Kyung Kim and her two children to the police station for interviews 16 days after the disappearance.
“I got the feeling she felt apprehensive about going to the police,” he said. “I was blown away at how unemotionally torn she seemed.”
But even with statements like that and Thursday’s outburst by Gustavo Covian, the body of Young Kim has never been found, and Kyung Kim’s friends and family will testify that he was depressed about his failing business, his dying father, his deteriorating marriage and that he was considered suicidal, Worthington said.
Prior witnesses in the trial have stated that the Kim’s marriage – arranged in their native Korea – was abusive and that both partners had been participating in extramarital affairs for a number of years.
Waite claims that following the murder organized by Maria Covian, Gustavo Covian continued to extort Kyung Kim for up to $100,000. Gustavo and Maria Covian purchased a new home and two new cars between 1998 and 1999, but Worthington claims they were paid for by loans from other members of the Covian family.
Korean speaking witnesses who appeared at the trial Wednesday verified loaning Kyung Kim $50,000 between July 1998 and March 1999; Worthington said the loans were for the restaurant.
Police have searched the alleged Hollister gravesite of Kyung Kim in the Vibroras Creek’s dry bed near Church Hill Road with cadaver dogs and earth moving equipment at least four times since 1999 – most recently last summer – and but have yet to recover a body or any forensic evidence. A .357 magnum was recovered from Gustavo and Maria Covian’s home during a search in 2000, but forensic tests for blood, hair, fibers and skin were inconclusive, and the gun cannot be matched to a bullet because the body hasn’t been found.
