Marco Antonio Quintanilla, charged with being an accessory to an October 2021 killing in Fairfield involving his sister, took the witness stand Thursday, testifying that he told investigators everything he knew about the crime.
His attorney, Laurie Savill of San Francisco, asked Quintanilla if his sister, Jessica Yesenia Quintanilla, told him on Oct. 31 that “We killed someone.”
Marco Quintanilla regarded the statement as joke, he said during the afternoon session in Department 11 of Solano County Superior Court in Fairfield.
Jessica Quintanilla, 24, of Pittsburg, allegedly shot and killed Leilani Beauchamp, 19, of Carmel, on the morning of Oct. 30 while she was lying in bed with Juan Parra-Peralta, whom Quintanilla once had a romantic relationship. Her brother, 30, also of Pittsburg, is on trial at the same time and faces the accessory allegation.
He acknowledged a new shovel purchased by his sister and Parra-Peralta at a San Jose Home Depot, in addition to a semi-automatic handgun purchased earlier in October, ended up in Marco Quintanilla’s Pittsburg residence later on Oct. 30.
He told Savill, responding during her direct examination, that he was not have taken the gun or shovel had he known they were involved in a crime.
Court records show Jessica Quintanilla and Parra-Peralta, then a 21-year-old airmen stationed at Travis Air Force Base at the time, transported Beauchamp’s body, wrapped in a blanket, and dumped down a hillside off a somewhat rural road near Salinas in Monterey County later in the day on Oct. 30.
Upon cross-examination, Deputy District Attorney Ilana Shapiro who has led the prosecution during the month-long trial, cast doubts about Marco Quintanilla’s statements to Fairfield police investigators after his arrest on Nov. 1.
She pressed Marco Quintanilla about whether he placed the gun in his residence or left it in Parra-Peralta’s car and whether he stated to investigators during a jail interview that his sister was “the last person to touch the gun,” with her asserting that he changed his testimony.
Throughout her questioning Shapiro repeatedly told Marco Quintanilla that he was lying, including, based on previous testimony from Parra-Peralta, about this statement: “If something happens to her, something will happen to you.”
He denied making the statement.
Marco Quintanilla also was unsure if his sister said to him, “We shot someone,” or “He shot someone.”
Displaying Marco Quintanilla cellphone records on Oct. 30 and 31, Shapiro also showed that he was in frequent contact with his sister throughout the day and into the early hours of the following day, Halloween.
But also frequently, Marco Quintanilla responded to Shapiro’s questions by saying, “I don’t remember.”
Shapiro’s cross-examination of Jessica Quintanilla on Wednesday forced the defendant to admit she was hungover from partying the previous night and upset at her former boyfriend.
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Shapiro recounted that Jessica Quintanilla on Oct. 30 entered the second-floor bedroom of a Cascade Lane home that Parra-Peralta rented. She was there to retrieve some of her personal effects, but Jessica Quintanilla testified that she did not know Beauchamp was there.
Quintanilla testified she argued with Parra-Peralta but denied she was screaming, as Shapiro said, adding that she was “loud.”
Shapiro repeatedly pressed Quintanilla about her memory of what happened just before a single bullet entered Beauchamp’s head, killing her.
Beauchamp, said Shapiro, was naked in bed, vulnerable, did not have a weapon, and was not threatening, Quintanilla confirmed.
But boring in on Quintanilla’s possible state of mind, Shapiro asserted that Quintanilla was angry at seeing Parra-Peralta with a woman she told him “not to hang around with” and not to post anything on social media about Beauchamp. The prosecutor showed Quintanilla printed copies of text threads on social media.
Defense attorney William Alan Welch objected to Shapiro’s line of questioning and the introduction of the text threads, citing relevance and an Evidence Code section that gives the court discretion to exclude such evidence if it causes undue prejudice, confuses the issues or misleads the jury. Judge William J. Pendergast sustained Welch’s objection.
If convicted, Jessica Quintanilla faces 25 years to life in prison and perhaps more time for the use of a firearm. And, if convicted of the felony allegation, Marco Quintanilla, who after his arrest in 2021 posted bail and was released, could face up to three years in prison, depending on the circumstances of the case, and perhaps more time for being a previously convicted felon and violation of his parole.
The trial resumes at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in Department 11 in the Justice Center in Fairfield.