SANTA CLARA
– Despite a missing body and no forensic evidence, a jury
convicted Hollister’s Gustavo Covian Tuesday of being the
trigger-man in a contract killing of former Gavilan Restaurant
owner Young Kim.
SANTA CLARA – Despite a missing body and no forensic evidence, a jury convicted Hollister’s Gustavo Covian Tuesday of being the trigger-man in a contract killing of former Gavilan Restaurant owner Young Kim.
“It’s difficult (to get a conviction) without a body, no doubt,” Deputy District Attorney Peter Waite said following the verdict. “There have been maybe three or four ‘no body’ convictions in the county in the last 10 years.”
The conviction that could mean life in prison without parole for the 39-year-old Covian came after almost two days of deliberations by a jury of 10 men and two women trying to figure out what happened to the South Monterey Road restaurant owner last seen in 1998. Sentencing is scheduled for March 20.
Covian’s 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 – Young Kim’s wife of 24 years – are also charged with involvement in the disappearance and murder of 49-year-old Young Kim.
As the verdict was read aloud by the court clerk Tuesday afternoon, a Spanish interpreter whispered the news into Gustavo Covian’s ear and he showed little reaction, only staring straight ahead and taking a deep breath. The clean-cut Gustavo Covian, dressed in a button-down shirt and slacks, then whispered something to his attorney Thomas Worthington before being handcuffed and transported back to his county jail cell, where he’s been held since 2001.
Just as during the previous days of the trial, none of Gustavo Covian’s large, Hollister-based family attended the verdict reading.
“I appreciate all of your hard work, but, personally, I’m very upset at the outcome,” Worthington told the jury after Gustavo Covian left the Santa Clara courtroom. “There will definitely be a motion for a retrial.”
Worthington was not available for additional comments after the trial, but the victim’s sister said justice was served.
“I feel very relieved and a little shocked (he was convicted),” said Chung Weber, Kim’s younger sister who came from her home near San Diego last week to testify in the nine-day trial. “I had the feeling that maybe it was going to be a hung jury because there was only circumstantial evidence.
“This was very important for me and my brother; I have to give (Deputy District Attorney) Peter Waite credit because Mr. Covian is a dangerous man, and I believe he should be locked up.”Weber’s brother was last reported seen outside his former Rancho Hills Drive home on Nov. 13, 1998.
Waite argued that Gustavo Covian was paid at least $30,000 by Kyung Kim to murder her husband and father of their two children.
After many lengthy searches by the Gilroy police of the reported Hollister burial site of Young Kim, no body has ever been recovered; no homicide scene has ever been determined by police either, and forensic evidence tests for hair, skin, clothing fibers and blood on the alleged murder weapon seized from Covian’s Hollister home were negative.
“In this case,” Waite said. “I think it was the believability of the witnesses that showed the jury Mr. Kim was killed.”
Throughout the trial 22 witnesses took the stand, but following the verdict on Monday some members of the jury explained to Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Thomas Hastings and Waite that the testimony of current San Benito County inmate turned state’s witness Adrian Vizcaino was the key. Vizcaino is Covian’s brother-in-law.
“We spent a whole day trying to figure out whether he was dead or not,” one juror told Judge Hastings.
During his almost six-hour-long testimony, Vizcaino said Gustavo Covian had bragged to him about killing Young Kim and said that he was taken by two of Gustavo Covian’s brothers on different occasions to the alleged former grave site of Young Kim near Vibroras Creek in Hollister. But the body has since been moved, Vizcaino claims, though he doesn’t know the new location.
For his testimony, Vizcaino likely will be released on probation from his current 11-year sentence at San Benito County jail for armed robbery.
Worthington continually warned the jury throughout the trial that Vizcaino made up the story about Gustavo Covian bragging that he murdered Young Kim. Vizcaino held a grudge against Gustavo Covian because he would not hire Vizcaino a lawyer when he was arrested for armed robbery in 2000, Worthington said, and even pointed to Vizcaino possibly playing a role in the disappearance of Young Kim.
“You can’t believe a word this guy says,” Worthington said of Vizcaino.
Worthington also said that Young Kim was not murdered but instead committed suicide or took an extended trip to Mexico or Korea with his mistress.
But the testimony of the Kim’s children, other family members and friends countered that Young Kim was not suicidal and would not leave his home without notice, members of the jury explained. Young Kim’s car, car keys, passport, credit cards, suitcase and clothes all remained in his home.
Among the evidence jurors used for the conviction was a Gilroy Police Department videotape recorded when Gustavo Covian was arrested and placed in a patrol car on April 28, 2000.
“I ask, God, that I will pay in hell, in purgatory, but not here, among men and the under the law here,” Gustavo Covian said in Spanish after Gilroy police arrested him at his Hollister home, according to a transcript of the videotape.
Gustavo Covian was not called to testify in the trial and remained subdued with a stern face throughout, except for one major outburst when he lashed out at a witness who was on the stand.
Worthington said his client was talking to him during the outburst; Waite said Gustavo Covian was trying to intimidate the witness.
Both Kyung and Young Kim had extramarital affairs for a number of years, and their marriage arranged in their native Korea was deteriorating and abusive, several witnesses said.
Kyung Kim waited 16 days to report her husband missing. When she did, detectives say she was reluctant to give information.
The three other defendants in the case still face first-degree murder charges.
“(Today’s conviction) will make (convicting the other three defendants) a lot easier,” said Waite, who will prosecute the three defendants.
Maria Covian, a former waitress at the Kim’s Gavilan Restaurant at 6120 Monterey Road, is alleged to have set up the murder with Kyung Kim; Ignacio Covian is accused of helping carry out the murder.
