Bulos “Paul” Zumot has been convicted again of murder and arson charges in the notorious 2009 killing of his ex-girlfriend in Palo Alto, capping a second trial brought on when a federal judge overturned his original 2011 conviction after he claimed earlier courts and his trial attorney failed to act on faulty evidence.
This time around, Santa Clara County prosecutor Michael Gadeberg presented a more expansive murder case to jurors that he said left no doubt that hookah lounge owner Zumot spent the entirety of his relationship with Jennifer Schipsi threatening her with explosive text messages and heated phone calls.
That culminated Wednesday with a jury, after two days of deliberation, finding Zumot guilty of strangling 29-year-old Schipsi on Oct. 15, 2009 and then setting fire to her and the Addison Avenue cottage they shared.
“At the end of the day, the truth is that no one but Zumot threatened to kill her for two years, and he did exactly what said he was going to do,” Gadeberg said in an interview.
Zumot declined to be transported to the Morgan Hill courtroom of Judge Javier Alcala and so was not present for reading of the verdict Wednesday, which marked the 16th anniversary of Schipsi’s death and was one day after Zumot’s 52nd birthday.
Gadeberg said the District Attorney’s Office is seeking the same 33-year prison term Zumot was given 14 years ago; his new sentencing is currently scheduled for Nov. 21.
“Justice for Jennifer took far too long,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. “Her family, the Palo Alto police officers, my prosecutors, and this community, never forgot her.”
Zumot’s lead attorney did not immediately return messages seeking comment Thursday.
Authorities contend that Zumot strangled Schipsi after she told him she was ending their relationship and planned to report his abuse to police. About two months before she died, Schipsi reportedly made a recording for her friends in which she recounted how Zumot convinced her to stay in their relationship, and promised to change his ways, including attending therapy. But in that same recording, she said she anticipated that by staying with Zumot, “something bad would happen to her,” prosecutors said.
Multiple investigations pieced together a sequence in which Zumot killed Schipsi, then drove to a court-ordered domestic violence class in San Jose. Afterward he reputedly returned to their home, where he poured gasoline on Schipsi’s body, turned on a gas line in the kitchen, and started a fire that was extinguished by neighbors before the house could explode.
Zumot appealed his 2011 conviction multiple times, including with the state’s 6th District Court of Appeal. He claimed that a two-minute discrepancy on when he was recorded by surveillance video at the Palo Alto lounge he owned, and a purported threatening phone call to Schipsi from a blocked number authorities incorrectly linked to Zumot, should have been sniffed out by appellate judges evaluating an ineffective counsel claim involving his original trial lawyer, celebrity attorney Mark Geragos.
The collective failure to scrutinize this evidence, Zumot argued, deprived a jury of the opportunity to fairly assess his credibility and the prosecution’s case against him. Federal District Judge William Orrick sided with Zumot and in 2020 he granted a writ of habeas corpus that compelled a new trial.
Gadeberg said he understood that Orrick was concerned a jury might have reached a different result had that evidence been presented accurately. But he insisted that neither the surveillance video nor the phone call errors provided Zumot with a credible defense against a police investigation that contended he mistreated Schipsi for years — resulting in him having to attend a domestic violence intervention class the day of the killing — in a pattern that culminated with her murder.
“Everybody got that wrong” during the original trial, Gadeberg said, “but even with that information there was no alibi.”
He added that his trial arguments painted an overwhelming picture of Zumot’s repeated threats of violence against Schipsi to ensure Zumot’s guilt did not rest on any individual claim: “This was not an isolated incident. This was a drop in the ocean.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.