Defense lawyers press key witness in 2021 fatal Fairfield shooting – Times Herald Online

Lawyers for those charged in a 2021 fatal shooting on Tuesday demanded that a key witness testify to Fairfield police investigators and detail what he recalled leading up to the crime and its aftermath.

In his cross-examination, William Alan Welch of San Fracisco, who represents defendant Jessica Yesenia Quintanilla, contradicted some of the testimony Juan Parra-Peralta gave last week in Solano County Superior Court in Fairfield.

Quintanilla, 24, of Pittsburgh, allegedly fatally shot 19-year-old Leilani Beauchamp in the head in the early morning hours of Oct. 30 as Beauchamp lay in bed with Parra-Peralta, then an active-duty pilot for Travis Air. The power base is at a house on Cascade Lane in Fairfield.

Welch noted that on Oct. 31, Parra-Peralta told Fairfield investigators that he had not seen Beauchamp the night before and also told investigators that “Jessica did it.”

In an effort to sow doubt in the jury’s mind about Parra-Peralta’s involvement in the crime, Welch showed photographs of guns allegedly belonging to Parra-Peralta and Quintanilla, with whom some testimony showed they had an on-and-off relationship.

Parra-Peralta admitted to planning a surprise Oct. 9 birthday party for Quintanilla, but said they separated for a time in October due to an argument.

Welch noted that Parra-Peralta, who was 21 at the time, allegedly told Quintanilla that she was going to move to another residence and “that she needed to get her things” from the Cascade Lane home he was renting.

Beauchamp, Welch said, asked Parra-Peralta if she could return to Fairfield with him after leaving a Halloween party in Sacramento early on the morning of Oct. 30.

But Welch argued that Parra-Peralta lied to investigators about some of the circumstances and timing before and after the shooting.

“Before October 30th, was Leilani ever at your house?” Welch asked, bumping into Parra-Peralta on the witness stand in Department 11 of the Justice Center.

“No,” he replied.

“Are you sure?” Welch asked.

During his testimony at the morning hearing, Parra-Peralta, 23, who has since been discharged from the Air Force under less than honorable conditions, was unable to recall some details of what happened before and after the Halloween party.

Under cross-examination, Laurie D. Saville, also a San Francisco lawyer representing Marco Antonio Quintanilla, Jessica’s brother, reminded Parra-Peralta that he admitted lying to cops about who drove him home from a party in Sacramento, but that not like that. it was fellow pilot and close friend Damien Ponders who took him back to Fairfield. Ponders then slept on a sofa on the first floor of the Cascade Lane home, Saville said.

But Welch recalled that Parra-Peralta testified last Thursday that “you didn’t know where Ponders was.”

Welch also said Parra-Peralta and Ponders “sat and watched as Jessica mopped the floor” around the bed where the shooting occurred.

The attorney also noted that Fairfield police, who arrived at the home on Oct. 30 with a report of Beauchamp missing, knocked on the front door and Parra-Peralta, he said, “immediately fell to the ground,” indicating guilt.

Earlier testimony showed that later that day, Parra-Peralta and Quintanilla wrapped Beauchamp’s body in a blanket and drove to Salinas in Monterey County, where they dumped the body on a hillside off Corral de Tierra Road and then drove to Pittsburgh to visit him. some relatives of Quintanilla.

Parra-Peralta testified that Quintanilla told him she had to kill him if he did not cooperate with her and allegedly threatened him with her gun.

While in Pittsburgh, where they visited Quintanilla’s mother’s home, Marco Quintanilla sat in a car with Parra-Peralta, allegedly telling him, according to Welch, “If she drowns, you drown with her.” Welch said Parra-Peralta gave him his gun and Marco Quintanilla “put it in the trunk of the red Honda.”

Marco Quintanilla, 30, also of Pittsburgh, a previously convicted felon of attempted murder, is being tried in this case and charged with accessory after the fact.

Why did Parra-Peralta give Marco Quintanilla a gun? Saville, looking directly at Parra-Peralta and speaking loudly so the 12 jurors could hear him, said he “knew he couldn’t bring a non-military weapon” to Travis Air Force Base. Parra-Peralta nodded his head.

At the afternoon hearing, Deputy District Attorney Ilana Shapiro, who is leading the prosecution, continued her direct examination of Parra-Peralta, asking how many times he had sex with Jessica Quintanilla. He couldn’t remember.

On cross-examination, Welch noted that Parra-Peralta returned to Ponders’ room at Travis AFB in the early morning hours of Oct. 31, where Welch said he remembered Ponders telling him, “You just killed Leilani.” Your ass is going to jail.”

“No,” Parra-Peralta said.

During the afternoon session, Ponders, 25, described himself as Parra-Peralta’s friend, telling Shapiro that Parra-Peralta never said Beauchamp stole his car and described his friend’s relationship with her as “on and off.”

Ponders confirmed that the three left a Halloween party in Sacramento just after midnight on October 30 and drove to a house on Cascade Lane, where they slept until dawn.

Beauchamp’s body was later discovered in the predawn hours of Nov. 1, days after Beauchamp’s fatal shooting, when a Fairfield officer contacted Monterey County Sheriff’s investigators about the body on Corral De Tierra Road in Salinas.

Jessica Quintanilla is being held without bond on a first-degree murder charge at the Claybank Detention Facility in Fairfield. Marco Quintanilla has been released from custody after posting bail on an accessory charge. He is also accused of violating the terms of his parole.

If convicted, Jessica Quintanilla faces 25 years to life in prison and possibly more for the firearm charge. And, if convicted of a felony, Marco Quintanilla could face up to three years in prison, depending on the facts of the case, and possibly more for being a previously convicted felon.

The trial will resume Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. in Ward 11 of the Justice Center in Fairfield.