The one-year saga of the worst fate to befall a garlic queen
will end today when David Vincent Reyes pleads guilty to the
gruesome murder of Franca Barsi, sources said.
Gilroy – The one-year saga of the worst fate to befall a garlic queen will end today when David Vincent Reyes pleads guilty to the gruesome murder of Franca Barsi, sources said.
Reyes, 41, is charged with murder – and in a deal with prosecutors – will enter a guilty plea at a 1:30pm hearing in the San Martin Courthouse, Gilroy police told sister Lauretta Avina. The plea could avoid a trial and close a one-year case that started when Barsi was found Sept. 12, 2006, in her Westwood Drive condominium, tied up with arms and legs behind her back with a white electrical cord and suffocated to death, according to the county medical examiner.
“When my sister went missing a year ago, I knew (Reyes) was involved,” said Barsi’s sister Lauretta Avina. The plea deal “only confirms what I knew.”
Two days after Barsi’s death, police pursued Reyes from San Jose to Gilroy and back again before capturing and arresting him. In custody that same day, he confessed to killing the 38-year-old Barsi – his on-again, off-again girlfriend – during an argument, police said.
The murder shocked friends and family, who recalled Barsi as a vivacious woman with a bevy of talents. She was well known in the community and remembered for following in her sister’s steps to become Miss Gilroy Garlic Queen in 1986. The murder left her then 10-year-old son motherless.
Reyes has a history of violence toward women. Previous to the murder, he was arrested for assault with intent to commit rape and two counts of battery against women. At the time of the murder, he also had warrants out for his arrest for armed robbery and failing to register as a sex offender.
Reyes’ plea has been delayed more than a half-dozen times since October 2006, when he first appeared in court and the Santa Clara County Office of the District Attorney decided not to seek the death penalty. Reyes would instead face a maximum sentence of 25 years to life. This decision did not bother Avina, who expressed reservations about anyone being put to death.
“I’d rather see him suffer than give him a swift death,” she said.
Tension in the courtroom – with Reyes’ family and friends seated in the middle rows on the left side of the aisle and Barsi’s family seated less than 10 feet away in the front row on the right side of the aisle – increased as rumors of plea deals circulated in recent months. Yet, defense attorney Carl Beatty and Deputy District Attorney Ted Kajani repeatedly deferred the plea because they said they were discussing deals.
Even today, there is no guarantee that Reyes will plea, Kajani said.
“As far as what he’s going to do, we’re going to have to wait and see,” he said. “I just can’t say at this point.”
If Reyes decides to plead not guilty, a date would be set for a preliminary examination, Kajani said. During the examination, the state puts on its case before a judge who determines if there is enough evidence to send the case to trial. Beatty did not answer a phone call Thursday night.
“I trust (Kajani) and I know he won’t do anything too light,” mother Mara Barsi said. “There will never, never be relief for me, but I just want to see it done.”
Avina and Mara Barsi – who will go to church and pray before the hearing – will be in attendance today with the expectation that it will be the last plea hearing they attend. Barsi’s son, Andrew, now 12 years old, will stay with his grandfather, Mara Barsi said.
“I don’t think there will ever be closure,” Avina said. However, “it will be nice not having to go through these (court hearings) and not having to see his face again.”
