Over the objections of the defense attorney, a judge ruled Monday
that slaying victim Starr Mooren's sister will be allowed to testify
against her ex-husband, William Tyquiengco, the alleged killer.
Defense attorney Juliet Peck tried to block the testimony,
arguing that Monterey police detective Steve McMahon "emotionally
and psychologically manipulated" Jodi Mooren to turn against her
husband with hundreds of inappropriate e-mails in which the two
engaged in online sex and fantasized about a life together.
With the exception of one letter, all of those communications
have been destroyed, Peck reported Monday, pointing a finger at
prosecutor Ed Hazel, who learned about the relationship some time
ago but failed to disclose it to the defense.
With a jury set to hear opening statements on Monday in Superior
Court, Peck said, she is faced with cross-examining someone who will
not even look at the defendant -- without any evidence to explain
why she is so hostile toward the defendant, to whom she was married
when her sister was slain.
"To allow Jodi (Mooren) to testify is going to benefit the
prosecution for failing to disclose and preserve (evidence of the
relationship) and further prejudice Willy Tyquiengco because we
don't have the evidence to show why we have a hostile wife," she
said.
Mooren is expected to testify that her husband called her the
night her sister was killed to say he would be late, and later asked
her not to tell police because they would "ask questions."
Starr Mooren was found dead in her home Dec. 12, 1996. She had
been stabbed numerous times and nearly decapitated. No arrests were
made until August 2001, when detectives linked Tyquiengco to the
crime scene through a DNA match. He is charged with murder during
the commission of a rape and faces life in prison without parole if
convicted.
Peck is expected to argue that Tyquiengco was having an affair
with his sister-in-law, but did not kill her. The killer, she will
apparently allege, was Carl Jacobs, a former boyfriend of Starr
Mooren who had once stalked her and was one of her methamphetamine
suppliers.
In a blow to the prosecution Monday, Peck won the right to call a
forensic pathologist who is expected to testify that the victim's
wounds were similar to those used by hunters to kill wild boar.
Jacobs was a boar hunter.
Jacobs was also once a prime suspect in the case, said Peck, who
cited an affidavit filed in support of a warrant to search his home
in 1997. She said there was a "mountain of evidence" against him,
including the fact that he has no alibi for the time of the murder
and tried to fabricate one when detectives questioned him early in
the investigation.
"If there hadn't been DNA at the scene and law enforcement hadn't
assumed the DNA belonged to the killer," she said, "Carl Jacobs
would be sitting here today."
Jodi Mooren also suspected Jacobs at one point, and she initially
rejected detectives' suspicions of her husband. It wasn't until she
started exchanging e-mails with McMahon that she accepted the
possibility that her husband was the killer, Peck said Monday.
By 2001, Tyquiengco and Jodi Mooren, his then-wife, had moved to
Las Vegas with their children. Detectives went there to get a sample
of his DNA. When they began questioning Mooren about her husband's
whereabouts the night of the slaying, she lashed out at them, Peck
said.
"If you've come here to accuse my husband of killing Starr, you
can leave my house right now," she said, according to Peck.
Even after learning that her husband was a match to the DNA found
at the scene, she said, "a monster is who killed my sister, and
Willy Tyquiengco is not a monster."
It was McMahon's persuasive and increasingly intimate e-mails
that convinced Mooren otherwise, Peck said. While technicians were
unable to recover any of the e-mails, McMahon and Mooren have
testified regarding their content. Peck has said the e-mails contain
sexual content and fantasies about the pair being "boyfriend and
girlfriend" after Tyquiengco's trial.
The defense attorney asserted that Mooren testified behind closed
doors last month that her relationship with McMahon was "the most
emotionally intimate relationship of her life." Peck also implied
Monday that Mooren testified to at least one occasion in which the
couple had met and "french kissed," something McMahon said he
"couldn't remember" when he testified.
Peck said none of the telltale e-mails could be retrieved, either
because the computers they were written on have been discarded or
because the city of Monterey's electronic system had permanently
deleted them. The only evidence she has to show the jury of the
"outrageous official misconduct" is a letter from McMahon that is
"shocking in its insidious attempt to emotionally and
psychologically manipulate" Mooren.
She said McMahon tried to conceal the relationship, telling
Mooren they had to maintain a "read it and delete it" policy
regarding their e-mails.
Prosecutor Hazel cautioned against "painting Steve McMahon as
some kind of brainwasher," saying that Mooren had testified she was
not influenced by their relationship.
"She was looking for some emotional reason to go on (after her
sister's murder and her husband's arrest) and he provided that for
her," Hazel said. "He was trying to be supportive of her so that she
didn't go over the deep end."
Peck said McMahon used the e-mails to convince Mooren her husband
was guilty.
"He was always there when she was having doubts," she said.
She offered to stipulate as fact to the jury that Mooren would
have testified about Tyquiengco being late from work and telling her
to withhold the information from police.
Judge Terrance Duncan declined.
"There is no question in my mind detective McMahon's behavior was
inappropriate and unprofessional. The sanctions are that Steve
McMahon will have this aired in public," he said. "But it would be
totally inappropriate for the court to keep her from
testifying."
Opening statements in the trial were delayed until Monday because
of difficulties scheduling prosecution witnesses.
