Jury hears opening statements in trial for 2007 slaying.
By VICTOR A. PATTON
vpatton@mercedsun-star.com
Jurors heard opening statements Tuesday in the trial of a 31-year-old convicted felon who allegedly murdered his ex-girlfriend for being involved with another man.
Atwater resident Jose Pena Zavala, 31, is accused of first-degree murder in the killing of 27-year-old Jennifer Hernandez in her 3104 Denver Ave. apartment in Merced. Police found her body Dec. 3, 2007.
Dressed in a tan blazer and teal dress shirt, Jose Blas Zavala sat expressionless, listening on headphones to a Spanish translator as a prosecutor showed jurors a series of lurid crime scene photographs of the victim.
The photos showed Hernandez lying dead on the floor of her apartment, one bullet wound to the back of her head, another on her back. Hernandez's body was found the same day Zavala was arrested.
During his opening statement Tuesday, Chief Deputy District Attorney Mark Bacciarini showed jurors a snippet of video taken while Zavala was being questioned by Merced police. During the video, Zavala appears to admit killing Hernandez, saying that he entered her apartment and brandished a gun.
On the video, Zavala was questioned by then-detective Rodney Court. Court, who is now a sergeant with the department, gave Zavala a fake gun during the video interview, asking the defendant about how the shooting happened.
Zavala went on to explain that the victim came out of the kitchen and yelled at him, asking the defendant where he'd placed their son, who wasn't in the room. Zavala said Hernandez then tried to grab at the gun, before being shot. "Did you want to kill her or scare her?" Court asked Zavala. Zavala, speaking in Spanish, replied that he had thought about killing her.
"This was deliberate, premeditated murder," Bacciarini told jurors.
Zavala's attorneys, deputy public defenders Paul Lyon and Chris Loethen, reserved their opening statement for later during the trial. Loethen declined comment Tuesday.
Zavala has entered a dual plea to the homicide charges -- not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. If Zavala is found guilty, a second phase of the jury trial will take place to determine whether he was sane.
Jurors also heard Tuesday from Harry Markarian, a former Merced police detective who worked on the case. Markarian, who was one of the first detectives at the murder scene, said he found Hernandez's son, who was 2 years old at the time, sitting on the floor watching television -- his mother's dead body about 10 feet away.
According to police, on the day of the shooting Zavala was found by Merced County sheriff's deputies on a canal bank in Stevinson, pointing a gun to his head. After Zavala put the gun down, he allegedly told deputies that he'd shot his girlfriend.
He also provided the victim's Merced address to sheriff's deputies, according to investigators.
A report from the Merced Police Department indicates that Zavala had threatened to kill Hernandez less than three months before her death. He was arrested on charges of making criminal threats.
The charges against Zavala for making those threats were later reduced to misdemeanor charges in Merced County Superior Court -- a month before Hernandez was killed. Zavala pleaded no contest to the charges, was freed from jail with time served and was sentenced to 36 months probation.
Zavala also has a previous conviction for burglary.
If convicted in the current trial, Zavala faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Reporter Victor A. Patton can be reached at (209) 385-2431 or vpatton@mercedsun-star.com.
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