EVERETT — A Snohomish County Superior Court jury this morning is scheduled to resume considering whether to believe Daniel Jay Perez when he confessed to a prison killing 19 months ago or to believe his claim of innocence in court earlier this week.
Perez, 21, originally of Tacoma, is being tried for aggravated first-degree murder, a crime that could keep him in prison for the rest of his life.
He’s accused of wrapping a cord around the neck of cellmate Cory Garzina, 24, and strangling him to death on June 19, 2006. The two were housed in the same cell at the Washington State Reformatory, part of the Monroe prison complex.
On the evening of the killing, Perez told a Monroe detective that he dreamed Garzina was going to kill him, and the defendant decided to strike first.
He displayed his hands, which had abrasions consistent with someone pulling hard on a cord.
Earlier this week, Perez changed his story, telling jurors that he was out of his cell when Garzina was killed. He identified two prisoners who told him to make sure Garzina was up and dressed. Perez also was warned to be away from the cell that morning.
He told jurors he didn’t tell authorities this story in 2006 because the prisoners who killed Garzina threatened him.
He testified he was told: “If I said anything about what happened to my cellmate, the same thing would happen to me and my family.”
He also told jurors he didn’t know Garzina was going to be killed. He said he thought there would be a fight, a little prison justice.
When he returned to his cell, “I blacked out and sat down on the floor,” he testified.
Keeping his story a secret so long doesn’t make any sense, deputy prosecutor Laura Twitchell told jurors Wednesday in her closing argument.
Jurors saw video recordings of prisoners coming and going from their cells. She said it’s not possible someone else could figure out where the cameras would be aimed, and get in the cell to strangle Garzina.
Perez this week explained the marks on his hands as coming from his own intent to commit suicide.
He was in a segregation cell under the watch of two guards after the killing. Perez told jurors that he ripped the elastic waistband from his underpants and planned to wrap it around his neck. The abrasions on his hands came from that, he testified.
Twitchell called that the Fruit-of-the-Loom defense.
“He made a decision and he consciously followed through on it,” Twitchell said of Perez.
Defense lawyer Caroline Mann told jurors that Perez’s story this week makes a lot more sense than his so-called confession.
She said the prison cameras don’t show anything and dozens of prisoners could have come and gone from the cell. She also criticized the police investigation, alleging that the officers should have looked for fingerprints in the cell and sought material for DNA analysis.
“They never checked because it was just a couple of inmates,” Mann said. “Who cares? This would almost be a comedy of errors if it wasn’t a horrible tragedy.”
Mann maintained that Perez was sincerely worried about his own safety and that of his family when he lied in 2006, and his story this week fits the evidence.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or jhaley@heraldnet.com.
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