The attorney for a Chula Vista man accused of killing his roommate and putting his body in a 55-gallon drum in San Diego Bay conceded Monday that he placed the body in the barrel.
The attorney for Timothy John Cook, 54, insisted he did not kill him, but only found the body of Omar Medina, 28. Medina, who was stabbed 66 times, was found in the 55-gallon white barrel on Oct. 12, 2017.
The 10 man, two woman jury began deliberations Tuesday. They were scheduled to be off on Wednesday, Thanksgiving, and Friday. They were to return Monday, Dec. 2 for more deliberations.
Also charged is Cook’s friend, Derrick Jefferson Spurgeon, 40, of El Cajon. Spurgeon is charged as an accessory after the fact in piloting a boat that was used to dump the barrel.
Spurgeon’s lawyer, Roland Haddad, argued Tuesday that he was not aware there was a body in the barrel. Deputy District Attorney Cherie Somerville asked for guilty verdicts of first-degree murder for Cook and accessory for Spurgeon.
Cook’s attorney, Kara Oien, argued there was no motive for him to kill Medina, as he wouldn’t be getting rent money if he died. “It’s all circumstantial,” said Oien.
“He didn’t make the right decision when he found his body,” said Oien, almost at the end of her closing argument.
“He was trying to avoid this situation—of being on trial for murder,” said Oien. “We don’t know who did it, but it was not Mr. Cook. There is no evidence that Mr. Cook committed murder.”
Oien said there are many unanswered questions, such as who killed Medina and why. She acknowledged that Cook “made a rash decision” to put the body in the barrel and later dump it in the bay.
The prosecution has shown camera surveillance photos of Cook and Spurgeon in El Cajon, taking the boat from his property to the J Street Marina in Chula Vista. The white barrel can be seen faintly on video. After an hour in the bay, the men returned to shore without the barrel.
Somerville cited texts by Cook to others in which he complained that Medina was messy and often intoxicated.
Somerville said Cook kicked Medina out of the apartment and he had moved most of his belongings to his Cadillac, which was found several blocks away. She said he was last seen alive on Sept. 30, 2017.
The prosecutor showed photos of the barrel and the body. She said two people reported seeing the floating barrel to Harbor Police as “a navigation hazard.” There were cinderblocks that had been attached as a makeshift anchor, but they had fallen off.
There were five tiny holes drilled into the barrel. When police recovered the barrel, they found Medina wrapped without clothing with a blanket and pillowcase that generally match the type used by Cook, said Somerville.
Somerville quoted a witness who said Cook told him “It just happened. It was spur of the moment,” in reference to the slaying of Medina.
“Omar Medina bled to death,” said Somerville, who cited photos of Cook at his arrest in which he had cuts and scrapes on his body.
When police came to the house in the 500 block of McIntosh Street in Chula Vista, they discovered the kitchen sink had been removed. They also discovered the walls in Medina’s bedroom had been demolished, the baseboards ripped away, and the floor scraped away “hap-hazardly,” said Somerville.
Although Cook claimed it was a re-modeling of the home, Somerville described it as “a cover up” to conceal a crime scene.
The prosecutor also showed a photo of a cinderblock in the front yard of Spurgeon’s home. She said they looked like the cinderblocks found with the barrel.
Both Cook and Spurgeon did not testify in the trial that began Nov. 5. They have pleaded not guilty and remain in jail.
