A 24-year-old man slashed the throat of a transvestite man he met through Craigslist after the two discussed engaging in a sexual threesome with a woman in the victim’s Mission Viejo apartment, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday as the defendant’s attorney said his client was defending himself.
Adam Anthony Ingala-Whiting is charged with murder with a sentencing enhancement for the use of a deadly weapon. He faces 26 years to life in prison if convicted.
Ingala-Whiting is accused of killing 46-year-old Francesco “Joey” Bonomolo on April 29, 2014, in his residence in the Vista Real Apartments at 27260 Los Altos, which is across from the Shops at Mission Viejo.
A woman who had paid the victim to rent a room in the apartment found the body on May 2, 2014, when she went to check on Bonomolo after he failed to return her phone calls, Senior Deputy District Attorney Troy Pino said.
Bonomolo pretended to be a woman in his Craigslist ads, which drew a response from Ingala-Whiting days before the victim was killed, Pino said.
Bonomolo was stabbed at least 14 times and sustained defense wounds when he put his hands up to stop his attacker, Pino said. His carotid artery in his neck was slashed, Pino said.
Bonomolo’s laptop computer, which he used to communicate with the defendant and others who responded to his ads, was found on his bed with the defendant’s blood on the mouse, Pino said. Investigators also found the defendant’s DNA on blood smears inside the front door, Pino said.
Ingala-Whiting texted Bonomolo that his proposition of a threesome with another woman “made him horny,” Pino said. The defendant sent Bonomolo his phone number and said, “I’m free tonight,” the prosecutor added.
Ingala-Whiting attached a selfie of himself shirtless as well as an photo of an erect penis with the text, Pino said. Those photos were later found on the defendant’s phone, Pino said.
However, the defendant grew suspicious that “Jeannie,” who he was exchanging text messages with, was not a woman, Pino said. Jeannie was Bonomolo’s alter ego, Pino said.
When Bonomolo did not respond with a phone call, Ingala-Whiting shut down the proposed liaison the evening of April 28, 2014, Pino said.
Bonomolo asked Ingala-Whiting if he had any experience with “sissies,” slang for a transvestite, Pino said. Ingala-Whiting responded that he had “done everything under the sun” with females, but “with guys, nothing, but I’m open to suggestion,” Pino added.
However, the defendant resumed the communication the following morning, saying, “I want my threesome, I want my fantasy,” Pino said.
Ingala-Whiting text messaged the victim at 9:10 a.m., “I’m here,” followed by a message from the victim cancelling the date, Pino said.
Ingala-Whiting cut his hand in the attack and then got stitches later at an urgent care, Pino said. He called a “friend with benefits” in Laguna Beach to hook up, but she declined, and he told her that he “lied” to his sister that he was in Orange County helping her move, Pino said.
Investigators found diagrams of the internal neck organs on the defendant’s phone, Pino said.
Bonomolo had left voice mail messages to himself as his alter ego inviting the fictional woman over on the morning he was killed, Pino said. Then the fictional woman “canceled” the encounter via text, the prosecutor said.
When Ingala-Whiting was arrested May 12, 2014, he lied to police that the last time he was in Orange County was to take his girlfriend to a Good Friday service in Ladera Ranch, Pino said. He also provided other false alibis, Pino said.
Ingala-Whiting’s attorney, Peter Morreale, said Bonomolo had spent years involved in “fraudulent behavior” posing as a woman to “bait young men to come over and engage in sex.”
Bonomolo had 15 email accounts with 6,000 some exchanges from his online ads in one, the attorney said.
Two men who responded to Bonomolo’s ads in the weeks before his death are expected to testify in the trial.
“The evidence is going to show my client lied … to a lot of people” about what happened with Bonomolo, Morreale said.
Ingala-Whiting plans to testify, his attorney said.
At the time of the violent conflict with Bonomolo, Ingala-Whiting worked for his stepfather’s moving business and would carry a pocket knife with him as a work tool, Morreale said.
“He used it to fend off his attacker,” Morreale said. “You’ll hear how he panicked, how he ran… He did stab (Bonomolo) multiple times in the process of defending himself against sodomy, against rape.”
–City News Service