SAN JOSE
– Ignacio Covian, who had been accused of helping his brother
Gustavo kill Gilroy restaurateur Young Kim for pay in 1998,
accepted a plea bargain Tuesday that will set him free in three
years.
SAN JOSE – Ignacio Covian, who had been accused of helping his brother Gustavo kill Gilroy restaurateur Young Kim for pay in 1998, accepted a plea bargain Tuesday that will set him free in three years.
Covian, 32, formerly of Hollister, was on trial for first-degree murder. Hanging over his head was a life sentence with no chance of parole. On Tuesday, however, he accepted Deputy District Attorney Peter Waite’s offer to drop the murder charge if Covian would plead guilty or no contest – he chose the latter – to a felony count of voluntary manslaughter.
Covian’s co-defendants – Kim’s wife, Kyung and Gustavo’s ex-wife, Maria Zapian – are still engaged in the first-degree murder trial that began more than four weeks ago. Lawyers Tuesday morning were nearly finished discussing what evidence to allow, and jury selection was tentatively scheduled to begin today.
Waite required that Covian serve six years in prison for voluntary manslaughter, minus three years’ worth of credit for time served (32 months served plus 15 percent). Judge Ambrose agreed to this and is scheduled to sentence Covian on April 2. Covian also could face a $10,000 fine and may be forced to pay restitution to Young Kim’s family.
The state Penal Code defines voluntary manslaughter as “the unlawful killing of a human being without malice … upon a sudden quarrel or heat of passion.” It carries a maximum penalty of 11 years in prison.
Covian’s plea doesn’t change the fact that he “absolutely” maintains his innocence, he told The Dispatch as a bailiff led him from the courtroom back to county jail. Covian has claimed he was living in Vancouver, Wash., when Young Kim vanished in November 1998, according to his court-appointed defense attorney, Molly O’Neal.
O’Neal said her client accepted Waite’s offer based on her recommendation.
“I advised him it’s a deal he couldn’t pass up,” O’Neal said.
Waite said his offer was “based on a review of the evidence against Mr. Covian.” Waite had planned to call three witnesses to testify that Covian told them about helping kill Young Kim – statements Covian has denied making. Two of these witnesses are currently incarcerated, but Waite said there was no deal to trade their testimony for earlier release.
“It doesn’t make much of a difference to me,” Waite said of Covian’s plea bargain. “I’m still trying the other two.”
As a condition for the plea bargain, Waite required that Covian be available as a witness for the trial of Zapian and Kyung Kim, but the prosecutor said afterward he doesn’t plan to call Covian to the stand. O’Neal said she would advise her client to assert his Fifth-Amendment right not to testify. Covian still has a robbery case pending in Stanislaus County, according to O’Neal and Waite.
A year ago, a jury found Covian’s brother Gustavo guilty of murdering Young Kim for hire, even though Kim’s body was never found. Gustavo now is serving life in prison in Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad with no chance of parole.
Kyung Kim, 48, stands accused of hiring Gustavo Covian to kill her husband and end a 24-year arranged marriage that had turned bitter. The prosecution claims Maria Zapian, 29, brokered the deal.
Zapian’s and Kyung Kim’s attorneys are expected to include in their arguments that, since police never found Young Kim’s body, he may still be alive. Gambling debts and a girlfriend may have prompted him to flee to Mexico, defense lawyers have said.
For O’Neal and Ignacio Covian, however, the trial is over.
“In some ways, I’m sad to be out of it,” O’Neal said.
Considering the lack of a body, jailhouse witnesses and not one but two female defendants – even one female defendant is a rarity in homicide cases, O’Neal said – the defense lawyer described this case as “messy” and unusual but very interesting.
