Simi Valley Man Held to Answer in The Death of His Live-In Girlfriend
The victim's 15-year-old daughter came home and found her mother's badly beaten and bloody body on the bed, and her five-year-old step brother was missing along with her stepfather, according to a Simi Valley detective.
Detective Keith
Eisenhour testified today during a preliminary hearing for the
girl's stepfather Jose Escobar Monterrozo who is accused of killing the girl's
mother Claudia Menjivar, 33.
The couple lived
together at a house where the slaying took place that is located in the
2100 block of Lupin Street in Simi Valley on Jan. 25. The 5-year-old
boy was the couple's son and the girl was Minjivar's daughter, according to
court testimony.
The 36-year-old Escobar
Monterrozo is charged with murder and using a weapon, a club.
Attorney Justin Tuttle
who is with the Public Defender's Office argued in court that this is a
"classic" voluntary manslaughter case, saying that the slaying was committed in
the heat of passion. He said his client was a peaceful and quiet man who
snapped after the victim who demeaned and poked fun of him and kept seeing Alex
Mendez.
"The pain is building and building and
building," said Tuttle.
Prosecutor Rameen Minoui
told the judge that there was no surprise about Menjivar's affair, and the
defendant had known that Mendez was having an affair with his
wife. The defendant told Eisenhour and a family friend
that if he couldn't have Menjivar nobody else could either.
Escobar Monterrozo
probably told Menjivar that as he "struck her over and over again,"
Minoui told the judge.
Ventura County Superior
Court Judge Matthew Gausco ruled that there was sufficient evidence to hold
Escobar Monterrozo, for trial on murder charges.
Only two prosecution
witnesses, Eisenhour and Dr. Ronald Halloran, the county's former
chief medical examiner, testified during the entire hearing.
Most of today's
testimony was given by Eisenhour who described the violent and bloody crime
scene where brain matter was found on the floor as a result of multiple blows
to the back of the head with a car steering wheel lock
Eisenhour told the court
that Escobar Monterrozo told him that Menjivar struck him in the bridge of the
nose with the lock. He took it away and began repeatedly striking
her with it, telling Eisenhour she posed a threat to him after he grabbed the
weapon, according to Eisenhour.
The five-year-old was in
another room yelling "mommy, mommy" but his mother was dead by that time,
according to Eisenhour.
"If she wasn't going to
be with him, she wasn't going to be with anyone," Eisenhour said Escobar
Monterrozo told him.
Escobar Monterrozo left
with the child after he killed Menjivar. A short time later, the boy
was dropped off at a neighbor's house after Escobar Monterrozo bought him a
toy. Escobar Monterrozo was arrested around 7:20 p.m. after he was
spotted by an officer.
During cross
examination, Tuttle questioned the detective about the relationship between
Minjivar and her lover Alex Mendez who lived in Maryland. The two
knew each other when they were young and lived in El Salvador, and she
contacted him through Facebook in February 2011.
Eisenhour gave details
of Menjivar's secret rendezvous with Mendez including trips to Universal
Studios when he flew into Los Angeles on
August 2011. Eisenhour said Menjivar also spent Christmas
with Mendez in Las Vegas in 2011, and her 15-year-old daughter who was in
Ventura County tracked them down through her cell phone using a GPS
program.
On numerous times,
Escobar Monterrozo confronted his wife about the affair and even called Mendez dozens of times to get him to stop, according to Eisenhour.
Eisenhour said
the victim's daughter blamed Mendez for her mother's death.
Ronald O'Halloran, who
was the county's chief medical examiner, testified that the victim had multiple
blows to the back of the head along with a number of lacerations, bruises and
abrasions throughout her body.
"In the vicinity of 10
(blows), is my best estimate," said O'Halloran.
