A homicide prosecutor has told an Orange County jury he can show a particular circumstances murder situation against a new Lake Forest guy accused of having intercourse together with target one 2009 evening and coming back the after night to rob and destroy him.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy claims police that is solid shows Matthew Thomas Dragna (and their fan, Jacob Anthony Quintanilla) murdered Damon Nicholson, a well known Laguna Beach resort banquet supervisor, after which experimented with offer the victim’s property with other hoodlums.
Murphy stated in Wednesday’s opening declaration it does not matter which defendant swung the baseball bat that smashed the rear of 321chat dating Nicholson’s skull in October 2009 because Dragna and Quintanilla, whom faces a split test at a later date, are both legitimately accountable.
But Frank Bittar, Dragna’s veteran attorney from the Orange County Public Defender’s workplace, told jurors that Laguna Beach Police Department detectives jumped to erroneous conclusions after their uneducated, inarticulate customer, then the 19-year-old senior school dropout, over and over repeatedly lied during initial interviews.
“There’s simply no proof Matt laid a hand on that guy on the night time for the murder,” said Bittar, whom additionally utilized their opening statement to claim there is certainly “no question” the killer that is lone Quintanilla. “Common feeling is important right right here.”
In the event that duo are fundamentally convicted regarding the crime, they might drop as two of this criminals that are dumbest regional history.
Murphy stated the killers took Nicholson’s red, Sprint cellular phone from their Laguna Beach apartment on Dolphin Method near Heisler Park and afterward tossed it in a trashcan about 12 kilometers away at the The Timbers Apartments.
Provided cellular phone technology that is tracking the move quickly received detectives towards the flats, that was where Dragna and Quintanilla lived with regards to moms.
Evidence built-up during queries additionally linked the 2 men into the murder, relating to Murphy.
Bittar said Dragna and another of their older, male fans visited Nicholson’s house in the night prior to the killing.
The guys possessed a threesome that included a “kinky” scenario where in fact the target liked to break available their sliding cup home, turn all lights off, strip, destination a hood over their mind, log in to their fingers and knees for a blanket added to the family room flooring and watch for males to enter for relatively anonymous intercourse, based on the general public defender.
The next evening Dragna escorted Quintanilla to Nicholson’s house just “to facilitate intercourse” for their pal as the man “gave good head,” said Bittar, who claims Dragna stayed inside a motor vehicle and unacquainted with the murder.
Bittar concedes Dragna does not have hands that are“clean because DNA proof suggests he joined the criminal activity scene to aid Quintanilla eliminate Nicholson’s property, including their laptop computer, in a trash case.
That involvement means the defendant was just an accessory following the fact, in line with the protection attorney, whom apologized to jurors in what might be visual intimate proof introduced in the test.
Nicholson’s co-worker during the resort Laguna discovered him slumped over and face straight straight straight down on their white settee following the banquet that is usually punctual, who lived alone in a two bedroom apartment, didn’t show up at the job.
Murphy stated the autopsy proved Nicholson have been “bludgeoned to death” with a “cylindrical object.”
Based on court public records, Adam4Adam.com, a gay relationship website, connected the majority of the males active in the instance.
The trial is anticipated to finish inside Superior Court Judge James A. Stotler’s Santa Ana courtroom prior to the Christmas time vacation.
Dragna, now 23, features a unlawful rap sheet that includes previous burglary and narcotics beliefs, relating to court records.
A judge planned a January 10 hearing that is pre-trial the 25-year-old Quintanilla.
CNN-featured reporter that is investigative Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the season honors in the l . a . Press Club; been called Distinguished Journalist of the season because of the Los Angeles Society of expert Journalists; obtained one of many final exclusive jail interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won addition in Jeffrey Toobin’s the most effective American criminal activity Reporting for their protection of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that lead to the FBI arrests and beliefs for the top three standing people in the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from ny days Magazine authors for their “herculean task” exposing entrenched Southern Ca police force corruption.