Lawyer David Epps went on the attack Tuesday in defending his
client, Kyung Kim, of Gilroy, who stands accused of hiring a
Hollister hit man to kill her husband.
Lawyer David Epps went on the attack Tuesday in defending his client, Kyung Kim, of Gilroy, who stands accused of hiring a Hollister hit man to kill her husband.
Epps appeared to be recasting an alleged murder for hire as a home-invasion robbery pushed over the edge. In doing so, the defense lawyer accused two prosecution witnesses of helping carry out the crime.
“You were the lookout that night,” Epps said to Jose Jesus “Chuy” Estrada, a former cook at the Kims’ Gavilan Restaurant and the last witness to report seeing Young Kim.
“No,” Estrada said, shaking his head and looking at the floor.
Kim’s husband, Young Kim, was last seen on Nov. 13, 1998. She waited 16 days before reporting him missing to police.
Young Kim’s body has never been found, but in February 2003, prosecutor Peter Waite convinced a jury that Gustavo Covian, of Hollister, was guilty of murdering Young Kim. This spring, two alleged accomplices – Covian’s brother and ex-wife – pleaded to voluntary manslaughter and were sentenced to prison.
Kyung Kim is the final defendant. Charged with first-degree murder, she could face a lifetime prison sentence without parole if found guilty.
Kim, 47, wore a long skirt and beige sweater in court Tuesday and sat beside Epps as a Korean interpreter translated for her. She broke her calm only once, crying while witness Adrian Vizcaino – once married to the Covians’ sister – related how Gustavo Covian said he had received $65,000 as partial payment for killing Young Kim. Gustavo Covian said he was owed $100,000 for the deed, Vizcaino said.
Kyung Kim denies asking anyone to kill her husband but has admitted to police she paid Covian tens of thousands of dollars after her husband disappeared. She said Covian threatened to kill her and her children if she didn’t pay.
She has been in jail since her arrest in June 2001.
On Tuesday, Epps suggested Covian killed Kim of his own volition and then tried to implicate and extort Kyung Kim. Epps revealed his theory while cross-examining Estrada, who spoke via a Spanish interpreter.
First, Epps pressured Estrada to admit he told Gilroy police two different stories in different interviews about the last time he saw his boss.
In both versions, Estrada, Young Kim and a dishwasher closed up the Gavilan Restaurant – now the Sunrise Cafe, at 6120 Monterey St. – at about 10 p.m. that Friday the 13th. Kim invited the men to go to a Mexican bar in Watsonville with him and a neighbor – Kim often went to bars with his male employees, Estrada said – but both workers turned him down.
On Dec. 1, 1998, Estrada told a police officer he and his boss went their separate ways from the restaurant. A year and a half later, Estrada told a detective that he accompanied Young Kim back to the Kims’ 9440 Rancho Hills Drive house that night with the intention of having a beer with him. This was the story Estrada repeated in court Tuesday.
Estrada said he parked on the street and saw Young Kim drive into his garage. The garage door closed, and Estrada said he waited for his boss in his car for 25 to 30 minutes. When Kim didn’t emerge, Estrada said he went home since he had to work the next day and didn’t feel like drinking.
Epps accused Estrada of standing watch as Gustavo and Ignacio Covian of Hollister robbed and killed Young Kim at the house. Epps said Gustavo Covian ordered Estrada to change his story to police in order to implicate Kyung Kim.
Estrada repeatedly denied these accusations, but Epps persisted.
“You were the lookout that night, just like you were the lookout in the commercial burglaries,” he said, referring to jail time Estrada served in the past for two felony counts of commercial burglary, though he insisted Tuesday he never stole anything.
Estrada appeared fearful when questioned by both Waite and Epps.
Vizcaino’s testimony followed, and Epps also accused him of taking part in what he said was a home invasion robbery at the Kims’ house.
“I wasn’t there,” Vizcaino responded via a Spanish interpreter.
Vizcaino admitted he participated in two home invasion robberies with the Covians in 1999: one in Hollister and the other near Modesto.
Epps opened Tuesday’s proceedings with a motion to suppress Vizcaino’s testimony since most of it was “hearsay evidence” – things Vizcaino said Gustavo Covian told him. A Supreme Court decision in March reinforced defendants’ rights to confront those who make statements incriminating them, but Judge Robert Ambrose still denied Epps’ request.
The murder trial began on Monday. After the lawyers’ opening statements that day, the jury heard the testimony of the Kims’ son, Daniel, and their daughter, Helen. Both described their father as loving, responsible, hard-working and strict. Helen added that he also was abusive and hit her and her mother multiple times.
Helen Kim was away at college the night her father disappeared, but Daniel was a 12-year-old at home. He told the jury he was watching television that night when he heard the garage door open. He never heard anyone enter, however.
He said he slept in his sister’s bedroom that night and awakened to find his mother in the room. She told him to go back to sleep but stayed in the room, pacing and occasionally looking out the window through the blinds.
