Despite a missing body and no forensic evidence, Hollister’s
Gustavo Covian was convicted Tuesday of being the trigger man in a
contract killing of former Gavilan Restaurant owner Young Kim.
SANTA CLARA – Despite a missing body and no forensic evidence, Hollister’s Gustavo Covian was convicted Tuesday of being the trigger man in a contract killing of former Gavilan Restaurant owner Young Kim.
“It’s difficult (to get a conviction) without a body, no doubt,” said Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Peter Waite following the verdict. “There have been maybe three or four ‘no body’ convictions in the county in the last 10 years.”
The conviction that could mean life in prison without parole for the 39-year-old Covian came after almost two days of deliberation by a jury of 10 men and two women.
As the verdict was read aloud by the court clerk Tuesday afternoon, a Spanish interpreter whispered the news into Covian’s ear as he showed little reaction, only staring straight ahead and taking a deep breath. The clean-cut Covian, dressed in a button-down shirt and slacks, then whispered something to his attorney Thomas Worthington before being handcuffed and transported back to the cell where he’s been held since 2001.
As in the previous days of the trial, none of Covian’s large, Hollister-based family attended the verdict reading.
“I appreciate all of your hard work, but personally I’m very upset at the outcome,” Worthington told the jury after Covian left the courtroom. “There will definitely be a motion for a retrial.”
Worthington was not available for additional comments after the trial, but the victim’s sister said justice was served.
“I feel very relieved and a little shocked (he was convicted),” said Chung Weber, Kim’s younger sister who came from her home near San Diego last week to testify in the nine-day trial. “I had the feeling that maybe it was going to be a hung jury because there was only circumstantial evidence.
“This was very important for me and my brother; I have to give (Deputy District Attorney) Peter Waite credit because Mr. Covian is a dangerous man and I believe he should be locked up.”
Weber’s brother was last reported seen outside his former Rancho Hills Drive home on Nov. 13, 1998.
Waite claims Covian was paid at least $30,000 by Kim’s wife Kyung Kim to murder her husband and father of their two children.
After many lengthy searches by Gilroy Police of the reported Hollister burial site of Young Kim, no body has ever been recovered; no homicide scene has ever been determined by police either, and forensic evidence tests for hair, skin, clothing fibers and blood on the alleged murder weapon seized from Covian’s Hollister were negative.
“In this case,” Waite said, “I think it was the believability of the witnesses that showed the jury Mr. Kim was killed.”
Throughout the trial 22 witnesses took the stand, but following the verdict some members of the jury explained to Superior Court Judge Thomas Hastings and Waite that the testimony of current San Benito County inmate turned state’s witness Adrian Vizcaino was the key. Vizcaino is also Covian’s brother-in-law.
“We spent a whole day trying to figure out whether he was dead or not,” one juror told Judge Hastings.
During his almost six-hour long testimony, Vizcaino said Gustavo Covian had bragged to him about killing Young Kim and said that he was taken by two of Gustavo Covian’s brothers on different occasions to the alleged former grave site of Young Kim near Vibroras Creek in Hollister. But the body has since been moved, Vizcaino claims, though he doesn’t know the new location.
For his testimony, Vizcaino will likely be released on probation from his current 11-year sentence at San Benito County jail for armed robbery.
Worthington continually warned the jury throughout the trial that Vizcaino made up the story that Gustavo Covian bragged about the murder because Gustavo Covian refused to hire Vizcaino a lawyer in the past, and Worthington even pointed to Vizcaino having played a role in the disappearance of Young Kim.
“You can’t believe a word this guy says,” Worthington said of Vizcaino.
Worthington also said that Young Kim was not murdered, but instead committed suicide or took an extended trip to Mexico or Korea with his mistress.
But the testimony of the Kim’s children, other family members and friends showed that Young Kim was not suicidal and would not leave his home without notice, members of the jury explained. Young Kim’s car, car keys, passport, credit cards, suitcase and clothes all remained in his home after his disappearance.
Among the evidence jurors used for the conviction was a Gilroy Police Department videotape recorded when Gustavo Covian was arrested and placed in the back of a patrol car on April 28, 2000.
“I ask, God, that I will pay in hell, in purgatory, but not here, among men and the under the law here,” said Gustavo Covian in Spanish after Gilroy police arrested him at his Hollister home, according to a transcript of a videotape recorded by a camera in the Gilroy Police Department patrol car.
Gustavo Covian was not called to testify in the trial and remained subdued with a stern face throughout except for one major outburst when he lashed out at a witness who was on the stand.
Worthington said his client was talking to him during the outburst; Waite said Gustavo Covian was intimidating the witness.
Both Kyung and Young Kim had been participating in extramarital affairs for a number of years, and their marriage arranged in their native Korea was deteriorating and abusive, several witnesses said.
Kyung Kim waited 16 days to report her husband missing, and when she did, detectives say she was reluctant to give information.
Covian’s now ex-wife and mother to three of his children, Maria Covian, 28; Gustavo’s Covian’s brother, Ignacio Covian, 31; and Kyung Kim, 46, are also charged with involvement in the disappearance and murder of 49-year-old Young Kim.
The three other defendants in the case still face first-degree murder charges and have been in custody in county jail since 2001; their trial is expected to begin in late April.
“(Today’s conviction) will make (convicting the other three defendants) a lot easier,” said Waite, who will also prosecutd against the other defendants.
Maria Covian, a former waitress at the Kim’s Gavilan Restaurant at 6120 Monterey Road, is alleged to have set up the murder with Kyung Kim; Ignacio Covian is accused of helping carry the murder out.
“I’m happy that justice is served for the time being,” Weber said. “But there are still three other defendants, so I only have 25 percent closure right now. I believe they’re all as guilty as (Gustavo Covian).”
Sentencing for Gustavo Covian will be on March 20, at which time Worthington is expected to make his request for a new trial.
