Court proceedings got underway Wednesday on a murder for hire
case that includes allegations of witchcraft, continual domestic
violence, drug use and a high-speed police chase.
Hollister – Court proceedings got underway Wednesday on a murder for hire case that includes allegations of witchcraft, continual domestic violence, drug use and a high-speed police chase.
The first round of testimony in the preliminary hearing for 32-year-old Hollister resident Sontu Garcia, charged with solicitation to commit murder, domestic violence and evading police, was heard by San Benito County Superior Court Judge Steven Sanders Wednesday afternoon.
Garcia’s preliminary hearing included testimony from two Hollister police officers, a witness to the alleged attack, Marc Solorio, and the 32-year-old victim, Raquel Jackson – who testified about the bizarre reason she believes her former boyfriend tried to choke the life out of her last November.
“He practices witchcraft and he thinks I took something from him, spiritually,” she said. “Some kind of intimate piece – it’s a power thing.”
Before Garcia’s attorney, Greg La Forge, could question Jackson about her allegations of witchcraft, Sanders decided to continue the hearing to a later date because it was getting late in the day.
But before the hearing was continued, Deputy District Attorney Steven Wagner and La Forge took turns questioning each witness about the alleged attack and the prosecution’s accusations that Garcia asked his long-time friend, Solorio, to help him kill Jackson.
The purpose of the preliminary hearing is to determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant the charges pressed against Garcia.
Throughout the afternoon, the attorneys posed a series of detailed questions to each witness. Although further testimony has to be heard before the judge renders a decision on whether it will go to a full trial, a picture of a night filled with methamphetamine use, arguments, fear and violence began to emerge.
The case stems from Garcia’s arrest last November, after Jackson contacted police and reported that he had choked her almost to the point of passing out and that he previously asked Solorio to help him kill her, according to testimony.
The incident began on Halloween night last year. Jackson told the court that after a tumultuous drive from Concord to Hollister, where Garcia threatened her with a knife, she dropped him off at Solorio’s house to hang out with his friend of more than 20 years. While the two friends spent the day together at Solorio’s apartment on West Street, Jackson said she went to her parent’s house and didn’t see her boyfriend again until about 10pm that night, she said.
But Solorio testified that Jackson dropped Garcia off at his apartment and that she spent the afternoon running errands, returning some merchandise he’d purchased at the office supply store, Staples, for him in the process. During the day, Solorio said Garcia passed him a note that he believes was Garcia’s way of asking his friend to help him kill his girlfriend.
“I didn’t take him seriously,” Solorio said. “He said, you want to help me kill her? And I said, ‘yeah, sure, is there anything else you want?'”
Jackson had the note and gave it to police when she made the initial report, Hollister Police Officer Rosemary Pacheco said in court.
The note, which was printed in Garcia’s handwriting on a small piece of spiral-bound notebook paper read, “I’ve got a job to do on her tonight. How can I do it if she is here in your house? I don’t want disrespect your house. Answer and please be discreet. Sontu. Can I handle my business?”
Solorio testified that, throughout Halloween day, he and Garcia smoked some meth and hung out around the house with another friend, Juan Monteon. Solorio said Jackson smoked with them before she left to run errands, although Jackson testified otherwise. It wasn’t until Jackson finally returned later that night that the situation escalated.
Jackson said Garcia was immediately upset with her because he couldn’t get ahold of her all day and didn’t believe her repeated assertions that she spent the day at her parent’s house. Jackson said she had been forbidden to see Garcia and couldn’t ask her parents to vouch for her that she was telling the truth.
Around 3am that morning she finally persuaded Garcia to let her leave Solorio’s home so she could return to her parent’s house, she said. Solorio testified that he escorted her to her car and asked Garcia to stay inside his apartment because she was obviously terrified of him.
When Jackson got to her car, however, Garcia jumped inside and began choking her with some kind of object, although Jackson didn’t know what it was, she said.
“There was something around my neck at one point. I squirmed away and he was trying to get his hands around my neck. He got another grasp around my neck and I looked up and saw Marc walking toward his apartment. Marc came back and said, ‘Sontu, you’re gonna kill her,’ and Sontu said, ‘Let me finish,'” Jackson said. “At this point I was starting to see the fuzzies and I looked over and Marc was kneeling down at the car – I was reaching for him to help me… All of a sudden I felt a big push on one side and Sontu let go.”
Solorio testified that he pulled Garcia off Jackson because he thought he was going to kill her. Jackson then ran back into Solorio’s house and Garcia fled, Solorio said. Jackson didn’t contact police until nearly 5pm the next day, and officers issued a bulletin to be on the lookout for Garcia.
Garcia was arrested a couple days later after Hollister police Sgt. James Egan, who was on patrol in the early morning hours of Nov. 3, saw Garcia driving and chased him through town for several minutes before eventually apprehending him, he said in court.
Before he booked Garcia into the San Benito County Jail, Egan said he found a spiral notepad the same size as the piece of paper Garcia allegedly wrote the incriminating note on and a choke chain that would fit around a small dog. Although Solorio testified that he never saw Garcia with a weapon of any kind and Jackson said the object felt like a rope, she said Garcia had threatened her with the chain in the past.
Wagner finished questioning Jackson around 4:45pm, and because La Forge said his questions would take at least an hour, Sanders decided to continue the hearing until a later date. The date will be determined today at 9am, and La Forge said he hopes the hearing will begin again sometime next week.
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or em*******@fr***********.com
