SANTA CLARA
– The two children of Gilroy restaurant owner Young Kim
testified in court Tuesday that their father didn’t have a history
of mental illness or depression that might have led to suicide.
SANTA CLARA – The two children of Gilroy restaurant owner Young Kim testified in court Tuesday that their father didn’t have a history of mental illness or depression that might have led to suicide.
The defense for Hollister’s Gustavo Covian – the man allegedly hired by Kyung Kim to kill her husband – has claimed that Young Kim’s mental state was in question at the time of his disappearance in 1998.
Sixteen-year-old Daniel Kim and 26-year-old Helen Kim showed little emotion while on the witness stand, testifying that their father loved them.
“(My dad and I) were very close,” Daniel Kim said. “We would go to baseball games, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. We would go visit my grandparents (in Marina) almost every weekend.”
Further, Daniel Kim said he was home the night of his father’s Nov. 13, 1998, disappearance, and he heard Young Kim’s car pull into the garage but never heard his father enter the house.
Daniel Kim said he was home watching television the night of the disappearance when he heard the garage door open and assumed his father was coming home. He was up past his bedtime, so he hurried up the stairs to his sister’s bedroom where he sometimes slept when she was at school, he said.
But he never heard his father come in the house, and soon his mother came into the room, according to his testimony.
“She came in and turned on the light and said to go back to sleep, but she left the light on,” Daniel Kim said. “Then she went over to the blinds and cracked them open to look outside. … She stayed there for about 10 to 15 minutes, pacing back and forth.
“When I woke up the next morning, I looked and my dad’s car was in the garage, but he was not home.”
Kyung Kim did not report her husband missing for 16 days and since 2001 has been incarcerated in connection with his disappearance.
Kyung Kim initially told police she assumed her husband had gone to Mexico – which he did often – but several family members and friends have testified that he would never leave town without notice. Also, Young Kim’s car, keys, passport and credit cards were all left behind, and no clothes were missing from the closet, according to police.
Helen Kim, who was away at college at the time of Young Kim’s disappearance, told the jury about the history of relationship problems in her parents’ marriage that was arranged in Korea. Physical arguments commonly left Kyung Kim bruised, Helen Kim said.
“They had a rocky relationship for a while, I guess,” said Helen Kim, who is now a working professional and lives with Daniel in Gilroy. “He drank a lot – almost every night. Sometimes he would come home drunk. He would get loud and be rude.”
Prior witnesses in the trial have stated that both Kyung and Young Kim had been participating in extramarital affairs for a number of years.
According to the prior testimony of Jesus “Chuy” Estrada, a cook at the Kim’s former Gavilan Restaurant at 6120 Monterey Road, he had followed Young Kim from the restaurant to Young Kim’s Rancho Hills Drive residence that night with plans to go out for a drink. But after pulling in the garage, Young Kim never emerged from the house. However, in Estrada’s original police interview he said the last time he saw Young Kim was when he was leaving the restaurant that night.
Gustavo Covian’s defense attorney Thomas Worthington also questioned Gilroy Police Detective James Callahan about Estrada’s different accounts of the last time he saw Young Kim.
Estrada changed his story when re-interviewed by James Callahan in 2001.
“They were certainly inconsistent statements,” he said.
James Callahan also spoke about the lack of forensic evidence at the alleged burial site, at the Kim home and at Gustavo and Maria Covian’s home in Hollister. 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.
“When somebody is shot at point blank range, don’t bone, blood and tissue usually fly everywhere, covering the gun?” Worthington asked James Callahan.
“Almost always,” he replied.
Waite has claimed that Gustavo Covian and at least one associate kidnapped Young Kim from his home that night, killed him and buried his body near Vibroras Creek in Hollister, only to move it at a later date. Kyung Kim had made arrangements with Gustavo Covian’s wife and Gavilan Restaurant waitress Maria Covian to pay Gustavo Covian $10,000 to $15,000 for the murder, Waite said, although Gustavo Covian would continue to extort her for more money. Waite claims that following the murder, Gustavo Covian continued to extort Kyung Kim for up to $100,000.
On Monday Danny Ray Callahan, a 47-year-old self-proclaimed lifetime criminal and drug user testified that in March of 1999 Ignacio Covian recruited him to the Vibroras Creek area to help dig up and transport a body, although they never did.
Danny Callahan is currently incarcerated in Washington state.
Detailed searches of the area near Fairview and Churchhill Roads around Vibroras Creek have failed to yield a body or any significant forensic evidence.
Gustavo Covian, 39; his now ex-wife and mother to three of his children, Maria Covian, 28; Gustavo’s Covian’s brother, Ignacio Covian, 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 years.
All four defendants are facing first-degree murder charges and have been in custody in county jail since 2001. The other defendants – none of whom can legally testify in the current trial – will go to trial following Gustavo Covian. If convicted of being the hired gun in the twisted saga Covian could face life in jail without parole.
The prosecution is expected to rest today and the trial is scheduled to be complete by Friday or Monday.
