GILROY
– Jury selection was scheduled to begin today in a trial for two
women accused of conspiring to have a Gilroy restaurateur
murdered.
GILROY – Jury selection was scheduled to begin today in a trial for two women accused of conspiring to have a Gilroy restaurateur murdered.
Attorneys expect the trial to last four to five weeks once a jury is picked, according to Jim Leininger, who is defending 29-year-old Maria Zapian.
Today, the court will determine which jurors to exclude because of hardship. Many employers do not pay their workers for jury duty, and the court pays only a tiny amount.
With a month-long trial, Leininger said he wouldn’t be surprised if the court went through 300 potential jurors before settling on 12, plus alternates.
The body of victim Young Kim has never been found. Nevertheless, a jury last year found Zapian’s ex-husband, Gustavo Covian, 41, guilty of murdering Young Kim for hire. Covian is now doing life in prison, with no chance of parole.
That’s the sentence Zapian and Kim’s wife, Kyung, face if found guilty of first-degree murder.
Kyung Kim, 48, stands accused of hiring Covian to kill her husband and end a 24-year marriage – arranged by their Korean families – that had turned bitter.
The prosecution claims Zapian (then Covian), of Hollister, brokered the deal while waiting tables at the Kims’ Gavilan Restaurant on Monterey Street (now the Sunrise Café).
Covian’s brother, Ignacio, 31, was also charged as an accomplice to the murder, but he accepted a bargain last week.
Opening statements are expected later this week.
