The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on the 19-year-old woman killed in late October 2021 in Fairfield said her death was the result of a “gunshot wound to the head.”
Dr. Arnold Josselson on Monday told the jury in the Quintanilla siblings’ murder trial, in its fourth day in Solano County Superior Court in Fairfield, that the bullet entered the right side of the Leilan Beauchamp’s head, exiting the back side of her head but also on the right side.
Deputy District Attorney Ilana Shapiro, who leads the prosecution, then showed several graphic photos taken during the autopsy, performed on Nov. 3, four days after Beauchamp was allegedly shot and killed in Fairfield by Jessica Yesenia Quintanilla.
Josselson, a well-known Fairfield physician who frequently testifies during murder trials, said the single bullet passed through Beauchamp’s brain and the entry wound fractured her skull, with the bullet path angled “front to back in a downward direction.”
He also testified that he discovered some soot near the entry wound, indicating the gunshot came at close range, about one foot.
Quintanilla’s defense attorney, San Francisco-based lawyer William Alan Welch, briefly cross-examined Josselson while on the witness stand in Department 11 of the Justice Center, asking only about her height (she was 5 feet tall) and weight (122 pounds).
Quintanilla, 24, of Pittsburg, is alleged to have fatally shot Beauchamp in the head early in the morning of Oct. 30 while Beauchamp was in bed with Juan Parra-Peralta — at the time an active-duty airman at Travis Air Force Base — in a Cascade Lane home in Fairfield.
Her brother, Marco Antonio Quintanilla, 30, likewise of Pittsburg, a previously convicted felon for attempted murder, is on trial in the case and faces an accessory-after-the-fact charge. He is represented by Laurie D. Savill, also a San Francisco attorney.
The siblings were seated at the defense table during the morning session, and both appeared to be taking notes during the proceedings presided over by Judge William J. Pendergast.
Earlier in the mornng, Shapiro called to the witness stand Bryan Hoskins, at the time in 2021 a detective sergeant with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office who began an investigation in the pre-dawn hours of Nov. 1, several days after Beauchamp’s fatal shooting, when a Fairfield officer contacted him about a body off Corral De Tierra Road in Salinas.
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Hoskins said Parra-Peralta confirmed the body’s location, about 25 feet down a hillside, where it was wrapped “in a dark comforter,” and covered with brush.
Shapiro then showed the 12-member jury photos of the dark comforter projected on a large video monitor across the courtroom. Hoskins described what he saw when the comforter was opened: a white female lying face down, naked from the waist up, clad only in underwear and socks.
Upon further inspection, Hoskins said he and other Sheriff’s investigators could see what apparently looked like “brain matter and bone fragments in her hair.”
He said he would have been unable to find Beauchamp’s body without Parra-Peralta’s help.
Earlier in the trial, Parra-Peralta, 23, testified that he cooperated with Jessica Quintanilla after the shooting because she allegedly threatened to kill him if he did not help her dispose of the body, driving it down from Solano County to Monterey County on Oct. 30. Since discharged from the Air Force, Parra-Peralta has been granted immunity from prosecution for his cooperation and testimony.
A second prosecution witness on Monday, Monterey County Sheriff’s Detective James Day said he “processed the body,” placed it in a locked body bag, took it to the Monterey County morgue, then contacted the Solano County Coroner and made arrangements to transport the body to Fairfield.
Parra-Peralta returned to the witness stand on Monday and Welch cross-examined him, specifically concentrating on whether Jessica Quintanilla was armed when they returned to Travis Air Force Base in the early hours of Oct. 31.
“How do you know she had a gun?” Welch pressed Parra-Peralta, who said he had seen it earlier on Oct. 30 and, by his account, placed it, a Glock semi-automatic handgun, in the pocket of a hooded sweatshirt that she wore while they drove.
Parra-Peralta, with Quintanilla in the passenger seat, drove onto the base but she was not searched for firearms, he said.
But Welch asked him why he did not inform authorties about the fatal shooting while he was inside a base dormitory with friend and fellow airman Damien Ponders. Parra-Peralta said he was fearful, while she was parked outside, and he also said he told Ponders that Jessica Quintanilla was going to blame the crime on him.
Jessica Quintanilla is being held without bail on first-degree murder charges in the Claybank Detention Facility in Fairfield. Marco Quintanilla is out of custody, having made bail on the accessory charge. He also is charged with violating his parole.
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 a felony, Marco Quintanilla 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.
The trial resumes at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in Department 11 in the Justice Center in Fairfield.