SAN JOSE
–– A former Hollister man accused of helping kill a Gilroy
restaurateur was sentenced to six years in prison after he accepted
a deal with prosecutors, thereby avoiding a murder trial.
SAN JOSE –– A former Hollister man accused of helping kill a Gilroy restaurateur was sentenced to six years in prison after he accepted a deal with prosecutors, thereby avoiding a murder trial.
Ignacio Covian, 33, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Robert Ambrose Friday in San Jose. Covian will receive credit for time already served.
Covian also has to pay fines to the county and restitution to the family of Young Kim, who disappeared in November 1998. Ignacio’s sentence was the same as agreed at his plea bargain, in which deputy district attorney Peter Waite reduced Covian’s charge from first-degree murder. Covian pleaded no contest to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter on March 9, as he was about to go to trial.
It will be about three more years until Covian could possibly be set free. He must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence – about five years and one month – before he is eligible for release on parole for three more years.
Covian could, however, be incarcerated for much longer. He also has a robbery charge pending in Stanislaus County, and robbery carries a maximum penalty of five to nine years in prison, depending on the type.
Young Kim’s body was never found; nevertheless, Waite successfully prosecuted Gustavo Covian, Ignacio’s older brother, 4/9/04 for the murder. Authorities did perform lengthy searches for Young Kim’s body at a reported burial site in Hollister but came up empty handed.
Waite claims Kim’s wife, Kyung, hired Gustavo to kill her husband. Gustavo’s then-wife, Maria Zapian, passed messages between these two setting up the deal, and Ignacio helped commit the murder, according to Waite.
Gustavo Covian is now serving a life sentence in prison without possibility of parole. Zapian pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter on March 18 and is expected to receive an 11-year sentence on May 7. Kyung Kim’s murder trial is on hold as a state appeals court reviews evidence.
