A 39-year-old man accused of strangling a 25-year-old prostitute in Santa Ana eight years ago is scheduled to be arraigned Monday on a charge of murder.
Jose Esteban Cardenas Zuniga of Mammoth Lakes is accused of killing 25- year-old Yacschicka Watts on Second Street in front of some commercial buildings on Oct. 20, 2007, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin.
A transient walking by saw Watts early that day and assumed she had passed out, so he pulled up her pants and pulled her shirt back down before covering her with a blanket and making a pillow for her, Yellin said. When the man walked by again closer to sunrise he saw she was still in the same position and realized she wasn’t sleeping so he got nearby business owners to call 911, Yellin said.
Watts had bruises around her throat, and the defendant’s DNA was found on her neck, Yellin said. A DNA analysis also shows Zuniga had sex with Watts, Yellin said.
The case went cold because the DNA profiles did not match suspects in any criminal databases, Yellin said. Other men who had sex with the prostitute had alibis provided by the woman’s pimp, Yellin said.
Zuniga was arrested for a minor crime and his DNA was taken as part of that process, which allowed for a DNA match later, Yellin said. Zuniga was arrested in Mammoth Lakes Thursday morning and investigators ferried him back to Orange County to face charges.
—City News Service