SAN JOSE
– The second trial in a South Valley murder-for-hire saga set to
begin this week will now be delayed at least three months due to
the untimely death of a defense attorney.
SAN JOSE – The second trial in a South Valley murder-for-hire saga set to begin this week will now be delayed at least three months due to the untimely death of a defense attorney.
Maria Zapian, 29; Kyung Kim, 47; and Ignacio Covian, 31, are all charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances – a contract killing – for their alleged roles in the 1998 disappearance of former Gilroy restaurant owner Young Kim, Kyung Kim’s husband and father of her two children. All face life in prison without the chance of parole.
Jury selection for the murder trial of the three defendants was scheduled to begin this week, but Zapian’s San Jose-based attorney Daniel Hernandez, 59, died of a heart attack on June 6.
On Wednesday a Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge is scheduled to appoint legal aid to represent Zapian, but the other attorneys involved in the trial are predicting it will be three to six months before the new attorney is ready for trial.
“This is not the type of trial you can just jump into,” said David Epps, the public defender representing Kyung Kim in the trial. “We were all ready for this trial to begin, but this is something we’ll deal with.”
In February, a county jury convicted Zapian’s former husband, 40-year-old Gustavo Covian, for being the trigger-man in the alleged murder of Gilroyan Young Kim, although Kim’s body has never been found.
Covian, who lived in Hollister, is now serving life in jail without the chance of parole.
He was tried separately from the other defendants due to lawyers’ evidence and witness concerns.
Deputy District Attorney Peter Waite, the prosecutor in Gustavo Covian’s trial and of the upcoming murder trial said the death of Hernandez should not affect the outcome of the upcoming murder trial.
“The only thing that will be different is that there will be a lengthy delay,” Waite said.
Zapian, Kim and Ignacio Covian, Gustavo’s brother, have been in custody in county jail in San Jose since 2001.
Kim is charged with paying Gustavo Covian at least $30,000 to murder her husband; Zapian is charged with arranging the murder and Ignacio Covian is charged with helping his brother carry out the killing.
“Typically the defense attorneys all work together in this type of case,” Epps said. “I can’t say how the new attorney will affect our approach, it depends on his or her strategy once they’ve had time to review the evidence.”
On Feb. 11, following a two-week long trial and nearly two days of deliberations, a jury found Covian guilty of killing 49-year-old Young Kim, the former Rancho Hills Drive resident who owned the formerly-named Gavilan Restaurant at 6120 Monterey Road. Kim was last seen in November of 1998.
