GILROY
– A murder trial for the suspected death of missing Gilroy
restaurateur Young Kim is now down to just one defendant – the
victim’s wife, Kyung Kim.
GILROY – A murder trial for the suspected death of missing Gilroy restaurateur Young Kim is now down to just one defendant – the victim’s wife, Kyung Kim.
Co-defendant Maria Zapian pleaded guilty to a lesser charge on Wednesday in San Jose, ducking a first-degree murder trial like the one that sent her ex-husband, convicted hit man Gustavo Covian, to prison for life with no chance of parole.
Gilroy police have said Kyung Kim, 48, paid Gustavo Covian tens of thousands of dollars after he killed her husband. She reportedly told police she never intended to hire a hit man against her husband and only paid Covian after he threatened to kill her two children. Zapian stood accused of brokering a deal between Kyung Kim and her then-husband.
The 29-year-old Zapian pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, which the California Penal Code defines as “the unlawful killing of a human being without malice … upon a sudden quarrel or heat of passion.”
“Maria knows that she never intended any ill-will toward Mr. Kim,” her defense attorney, Jim Leininger, said Thursday. “She was caught in a very ugly situation.”
Leininger has claimed Covian was a “monster” who beat and threatened Zapian (then Covian) and their three daughters with gruesome deaths throughout their marriage. The couple lived in Hollister until police arrested them in July 2001.
“His ways of disciplining their children included biting them on her arms, throwing them through walls,” Leininger said. “She lived in an atmosphere of absolute fear and horror.”
To prove Zapian’s involvement, Waite planned to call as a witness a waitress at the Kims’ Gavilan Restaurant (now Sunrise Café, under new ownership), where Zapian also waited tables. The witness has testified she once overheard Kyung Kim tell Zapian she wished her husband Young was dead. Zapian replied such a thing could be arranged, the waitress said.
Leininger admitted that his client “relayed messages back and forth” between Kyung Kim and her husband but said she did so only out of fear of him.
“She considered herself to have no options in terms of the safety of herself and her children,” Leininger said. “She did not plan the murder. She did not carry out the murder. She did not pay anybody for the murder.”
Judge Robert Ambrose has not yet decided whether to sentence Zapian to three, six or 11 years in state prison, according to Leininger. Leininger said the sentence will be conditioned in part on the upcoming trial for Kyung Kim, although he declined to say how. Deputy District Attorney Peter Waite is pushing for the maximum.
Zapian already has three years’ worth of credit for time served (32 months in jail plus 15 percent), so at the latest, the state prison system would release her in 2012. If she gets the minimum, she could be released immediately, but Leininger said that would be “probably next to impossible.”
Leininger said Zapian was relieved at the plea bargain. Now she knows a day will come when she will be free to live outside of prison and spend time with her and Covian’s three daughters.
“You take the lesser of two evils, like it or not,” Leininger said. “It’s a business choice, not a choice of justice.
“It’s a hell of a way to get out of a battered women’s situation,” Leininger added. “She is rid of her batterer, thank God. He’s in prison for the rest of his natural life.”
Gustavo Covian’s brother Ignacio accepted a similar deal just a week before. Ignacio Covian stood accused of helping Gustavo kill Young Kim, but on March 9, he pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter, knowing he would be sentenced to six years in prison, minus three years of credit for time served. Judge Robert Ambrose agreed to this penalty, and Ignacio’s formal sentencing date is April 2.
Unlike Zapian, however, Ignacio Covian maintained he had nothing to do with Young Kim’s death.
One of the things with which Gustavo threatened his wife, according to Leininger, was that if she told what she knew, he would make sure she went to prison for life.
Jury selection, scheduled to begin on Monday, was postponed, Waite said.
Young Kim’s body has never been found, but Waite was nevertheless able to convince a jury last year that Gustavo Covian committed the murder for hire. A judge did not grant Waite permission to use Gustavo’s conviction as evidence in this trial, however, and Kyung’s attorney has suggested at least once that Young Kim may not be dead but perhaps living in Mexico.
The Kims’ 24-year marriage, arranged by their families in Korea, had turned bitter. Police have evidence that both had extramarital affairs, and divorce papers were found in Young’s vehicle after he vanished.
