By Tracey Kaplan
tkaplan@mercurynews.com
Posted: 07/31/2010 08:00:00 PM PDT
Updated: 08/01/2010 04:19:49 AM PDT
Anatomy of a hit
Police allege 5-man conspiracy in Los Gatos man's shooting death
Paul Garcia rarely withdrew cash from the bank account of his thriving Los Gatos bars. But two years ago, he took out $9,500 — the exact amount his associates claim he paid them to kill Mark Achilli, Garcia's rival for the affections of a sexy bar manager.
Pretty damning, huh?
Prosecutors certainly think so, and they will try to sell a jury on the connection as the riveting trial into what Deputy District Attorney Jeff Rosen calls "a love triangle, murder-for-hire" begins this week. They contend Garcia arranged Achilli's killing because he was jealous of Achilli's relationship with bar manager Tessa Donnelly.
But in a taste of the captivating courtroom battle to come, Garcia's defense attorney says he will prove Garcia had a perfectly legitimate reason for withdrawing the cash — and it had nothing to do with hiring thugs to kill Achilli for less than the cost of a used Hyundai.
"We have the receipts," attorney Harry Robertson said, to show he paid the bar custodian, filled the ATM, and bought tickets to a St. Patrick's Day party and pizza to celebrate the birthday of a regular customer. "They're making a scapegoat out of Paul."
Jury selection for Garcia's murder trial — and the trial of two men he allegedly paid to fatally shoot Achilli — starts this week, with opening arguments likely to happen late this month. All three men will be tried together and face a maximum sentence of life without parole.
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Two other men prosecutors say were involved will testify against them in exchange for lighter sentences.
The bizarre circumstances of the March 14, 2008, slaying of Achilli in the driveway of his condo in broad daylight could have come from the script of a Quentin Tarantino flick set in affluent Los Gatos. Only three homicides have occurred there in the past 10 years.
There's the bumbling gunman who left behind a torn-up picture of Achilli taken off the Web that led the cops to his doorstep. A police search of the alleged shooter's Burbank apartment that turned up manuals on how to be a hitman. The more than 30 calls or text messages Garcia sent Donnelly in the days leading up to the killing, alternately haranguing her and imploring her to drop Garcia's rival.
"Paul was obsessed with this woman," said Rosen, who won the recent election for district attorney and will take office in January.
But Robertson's first public explanation of the defense's strategy introduces even more unexpected elements.
"Drugs are the real reason the murder occurred," Robertson said. "It was a drug deal gone bad."
Robertson declined to reveal his whole case before trial. But he signaled he plans to attack the prosecution witnesses. He claims they're lying to dodge murder charges or to cover up other crimes — including pilfering cash from the bars or dealing drugs in to-go food containers out of the back door.
But when jurors settle into their seats later this month, they'll hear about a cast of characters who prosecutors say figured in the brutal death of the father of three by seven bullets.
A business deal
The case began in 2007 with a friendly business deal between 53-year-old Achilli and Garcia, an affluent real estate broker and graduate of the exclusive Bellarmine College Prep with no criminal record.
Garcia, now 32, bought Mountain Charley's and the 180 Restaurant & Lounge in downtown Los Gatos for a reputed $1.85 million. Contrary to earlier reports, both businesses were doing well.
Donnelly testified during the preliminary hearing that she led Garcia on while she was resuming her long on-again, off-again relationship with Achilli.
'I want it done'
Distraught and perplexed by why Donnelly preferred an older man who was also dating other women, Garcia told Daniel Chaidez, one of his bouncers, "Take care of the problem. I want it done," Chaidez has testified. He cut a deal with prosecutors to testify at the trial in exchange for a lighter sentence of 12 years and eight months.
As the prosecution's key witness, he testified at the preliminary hearing in late 2008 that he called his cousin in Southern California, Miguel Chaidez, asking him if he knew anyone who could help. Miguel Chaidez, one of Garcia's co-defendants in the upcoming trial, passed the contract killing on to the alleged hitman, Lucio Estrada. Another man, Robert Jacome, drove Estrada up to Los Gatos in a white Volvo, but claimed he was told the purpose of the journey had to do with collecting a debt. Jacome has also made a plea deal.
Sullying Garcia's image as an upstanding businessman, Daniel Chaidez testified at the preliminary hearing that Garcia had approached him once before to "get rid of" someone else — in that case, a former employee who angered him — but eventually dropped the idea. Daniel Chaidez also said Garcia was willing to sacrifice Donnelly, the woman he supposedly loved, if she happened to be with Achilli when the killer confronted him.
He said Garcia suggested making the killing look like a drug deal gone bad.
But Robertson said he can prove Daniel Chaidez was indeed dealing cocaine and meth at the bar. Something went wrong with one of the deals, somehow precipitating the killing of Achilli, who Robertson said was not involved in drug sales.
"Daniel and others were moving drugs," Robertson said. "We have spoken to somebody who provided him the drugs."
A jack of all trades
Another key prosecution witness is Joseph "Joey" Battiato, a jack of all trades at Mountain Charley's who roomed with Garcia in a Los Gatos apartment. Battiato originally worked for Achilli and helped arrange the sale of both bars to Garcia.
He gave damaging testimony at the preliminary hearing about Garcia's obsession with Donnelly, including that Garcia asked him to check on her whereabouts about 25 times. He also said Garcia made threatening statements about Achilli, including that he needed a plan for his funeral.
But Robertson said he will show that Battiato was angry that Garcia paid him only half of the $50,000 he promised him for brokering the bar deal. Robertson also said for the first time that he will prove Garcia had given Battiato two months' notice because he suspected him of skimming cash from the bar.
The love interest
Donnelly testified at the preliminary hearing she ignored most of Garcia's calls and texts — there were 642 between January and the killing — and said she and Achilli were engaged to be married.
But Robertson claims she's lying. Achilli was engaged to another woman, he said.
"We are going to call Mark Achilli's fiancee to the witness stand — and it won't be Tessa Donnelly," Robertson said.
As part of Robertson's strategy to undermine prosecution witnesses, he also claims the Los Gatos police officer assigned to investigate the case was not telling the truth at the preliminary hearing about his relationship with Donnelly.
Detective Matt Frisby testified he didn't know her. But Robertson said Frisby sued her through her guardian for hitting him in a car accident years ago. The significance of that — if any — will not be clear until trial.
Robertson also said the maid who saw a man who resembled the alleged hitman Estrada also told police there was another person at the scene, and he plans to question her on the stand about it.
In perhaps the most tantalizing but mystifying tidbit Robertson offered, he said Achilli was overheard at Carry Nations bar in Los Gatos having a stressful cell phone conversation shortly before his death about "amounts owed." Robertson stressed he does not think Achilli had anything to do with any drug trade at his bars. But the defense attorney noted that man who drove the alleged hitman from Southern California to Los Gatos said he thought they were going to collect a debt, not kill a rival lover.
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