SANTA CLARA
– The alleged hit man in Gilroy’s murder-for-hire trial exploded
and made threatening remarks Thursday as a witness took the
stand.
A jury got a firsthand look at the prosecution’s claims of
violent intimidation by Hollister’s Gustavo Covian, as he barked
angry threats in Spanish to Jesus
”
Chuy
”
Estrada, the last person to report seeing Young Kim, as he was
being questioned.
SANTA CLARA – The alleged hit man in Gilroy’s murder-for-hire trial exploded and made threatening remarks Thursday as a witness took the stand.
A jury got a firsthand look at the prosecution’s claims of violent intimidation by Hollister’s Gustavo Covian, as he barked angry threats in Spanish to Jesus “Chuy” Estrada, the last person to report seeing Young Kim, as he was being questioned.
Covian is the alleged hit man on trial in connection with the 1998 disappearance of a Gilroy restaurant owner Young Kim. It was the first time the incarcerated, 39-year-old Covian – a man the prosecution has called intimidating, dangerous and violent – lost his cool since the trial began Tuesday. Covian, clean-cut and dressed in a button-down shirt and dress pants without a belt, remained reserved and stern during testimony during the previous days.
Thursday’s outburst came as Deputy District Attorney Peter Waite questioned Estrada, a former cook and drinking buddy of Young Kim’s at his Gavilan Restaurant at 6120 Monterey Road, about Covian’s behavior at the Gavilan Restaurant.
Estrada explained to Waite that Covian would come into the restaurant after the Nov. 13, 1998, disappearance of Young Kim and ask to talk to Kyung Kim, Young Kim’s wife who the prosecution claims hired Covian to murder her husband. Estrada said Covian ate without paying, made statements that he now owned the place and tried to intimidate the employees.
“How would (Covian) act when he came into the restaurant?” Waite asked the small-bodied, soft-spoken, middle-aged Estrada through a Spanish interpreter.
At this question, Covian stared down Estrada from across the room, raised his uncuffed hands to his throat – possibly to signify the slitting of the throat – and barked a
a loud command in Spanish.
Covian’s attorney Thomas Worthington quickly reprimanded his client, and Estrada stared at the floor until the questioning began again.
Estrada would go on to say how Covian called him from the kitchen one day and showed him a gun he had in his waistband.
“He was trying to scare us,” Estrada said. “I was not scared, but the waitresses were. … He said he was our boss now.”
Estrada also spoke of the last time he saw Young Kim, when he followed him home from the restaurant around 10 p.m. that Friday the 13th, saw him park his car in the garage, close the door and then never emerge from the house. During his first interview with police, Estrada said he last saw Young Kim at the restaurant, but his story changed in a second interview.
Estrada will be cross-examined by Worthington today.
If convicted of being the hired gun in the saga twisted with alleged murder, extortion, extra-marital affairs, an abusive arranged marriage and a still-missing body, Covian could face life in jail without parole.
Gustavo Covian, his now ex-wife and mother to three of his children, Maria Covian, 28; Gustavo’s brother Ignacio, 31; and Kyung Kim, 46; all are charged with involvement in the disappearance and suspected murder of 49-year-old Young Kim, Kyung Kim’s husband of 24 and father of her two children.
All four defendants are facing first-degree murder charges and have been in custody in county jail since 2001. The other defendants – none of who can legally testify in the current trial – will go to trial following Gustavo Covian.
Three other witnesses also testified Thursday, including two of Maria Covian’s sisters – who spoke about the financial situation of the couple – and a friend and neighbor of Young Kim’s on Rancho Hills Drive, Mauro Sanchez.
Sanchez claimed on the night that Young Kim was last seen they had plans to go drinking and play pool in Watsonville, but Young Kim never showed up.
He also described accompanying Kyung Kim and her two children to the police station for interviews 16 days after the disappearance.
“I got the feeling she felt apprehensive about going to the police,” he said. “I was blown away at how unemotionally torn she seemed.”
But even with statements like that and Thursday’s outburst by Gustavo Covian, the body of Young Kim has never been found, and Kyung Kim’s friends and family will testify that he was depressed about his failing business, his dying father, his deteriorating marriage and that he was considered suicidal, Worthington said.
Prior witnesses in the trial have stated that the Kim’s marriage – arranged in their native Korea – was abusive and that both partners had been participating in extramarital affairs for a number of years.
Waite claims that following the murder organized by Maria Covian, Gustavo Covian continued to extort Kyung Kim for up to $100,000. Gustavo and Maria Covian purchased a new home and two new cars between 1998 and 1999, but Worthington claims they were paid for by loans from other members of the Covian family.
Korean speaking witnesses who appeared at the trial Wednesday verified loaning Kyung Kim $50,000 between July 1998 and March 1999; Worthington said the loans were for the restaurant.
Police have searched the alleged Hollister grave site of Kyung Kim in the Vibroras Creek’s dry bed near Church Hill Road with cadaver dogs and earth moving equipment at least four times since 1999 – most recently last summer – and but have yet to recover a body or any forensic evidence. A .357 magnum was recovered from Gustavo and Maria Covian’s home during a search in 2000, but forensic tests for blood, hair, fibers and skin were inconclusive, and the gun cannot be matched to a bullet because the body hasn’t been found.
