The prosecutors’ cross-examination of Jessica Yesenia Quintanilla, accused of an October 2021 killing in Fairfield, continued Wednesday with the defendant admitting she was hungover from partying the previous night and upset at her former boyfriend.
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, Marco Antonio Quintanilla, 30, also of Pittsburg, is charged with being an accessory and also is on trial.
Deputy District Attorney Ilana Shapiro recounted that Jessica Quintanilla entered the second-floor bedroom of a Cascade Lane home that Parra-Peralta rented. She was there to retrieve some of her personal effects and did not know Beauchamp was there, said Quintanilla.
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, 21 at the time, 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.
Shapiro asserted that Quintanilla told Parra-Peralta not to take Beauchamp to mid-October sideshow, a demonstration of automotive stunts, often in a street intersection.
But Quintanilla denied ever saying not to go with Beauchamp.
During the afternoon session, Shapiro repeatedly countered Quintanilla’s statements by saying, “That’s a lie, correct?”
On Tuesday, Quintanilla admitted that both she and Parra-Peralta possessed firearms, Glock semi-automatics, at that time, but the guns remained in Parra-Peralta’s custody.
And on Wednesday she told Shapiro that they were “ghost guns,” firearms made from parts purchased online and not federally licensed or traceable.
Also on Tuesday, Quintanilla confirmed her relationship with Parra-Peralta, a former airman stationed at Travis Air Force Base who was granted immunity in the case in exchange for his testimony, that the relationship was “always back-and-forth.”
She described his blocking her from access to his social media accounts but they later reconciled on Oct. 11.
But she also characterized Parra-Peralta’s occasional behavior as erratic, including the breaking into her Pittsburg apartment, physically following her and being sexually abusive.
Quintanilla has described the shooting as “an accident,” blaming it on actions by Parra-Peralta, saying he was armed at one point on Oct. 30, confronted her in the bedroom, and pushed his right arm away pushing his arm back toward the headboard and “the gun went off.”
Later, she and Parra-Peralta, who had recovered his Cadillac, traveled to San Leandro, then to San Jose, where they purchased items, including a shovel, at a Home Depot, then on to Salinas. There, according to Parra-Peralta’s testimony at the trial’s outset more than three weeks ago, he dumped Beauchamp’s body, wrapped in a blanket, down a hillside off a rural road.
But Quintanilla said she did not know Beauchamp’s body was in the trunk of the Cadillac.
Returning to the Pittsburg apartment, Parra-Peralta washed his clothes and she showered, but, when she got out of the shower, she recalled, he was “standing by the washing machine,” suggesting he was blocking any attempt for her to leave.
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They left Pittsburg and returned to the Cascade Lane home, where, in the early hours of Oct. 31, they traveled to Travis Air Force Base. There, they met Parra-Peralta’s friend and fellow airman, Damien Ponders. They all returned to the Cascade Lane home, where Ponders and Parra-Peralta helped to clean up the second-floor bedroom and the two men drove to Vallejo to dispose of the blood-stained mattress in a Vallejo Dumpster.
Later, Quintanilla and Parra-Peralta returned to Pittsburg, where she informed her brother Parra-Peralta “had killed someone.”
Upon cross-examination on Tuesday, Deputy District Attorney Ilana Shapiro got Jessica Quintanilla to admit she made telephone calls from jail, cheated on Parra-Peralta, sold marijuana during 2021, and helped to buy a firearm for Parra-Peralta.
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 who was charged with attempted murder.
The trial resumes at 10 a.m. Thursday in Department 11 in the Justice Center in Fairfield.