Quintero trial continues, journal entries presented to jury

UPDATE (8:30 PM):

The trial continued after a lunch break, with prosecutors questioning Hugo Verdugo, one of the victims and witnesses of the death of Clarissa Medina.

Prosecutors asked Verdugo, who was being assisted by a court translator, about what lead to the evening of January 3,

2018.

The questioning began with details regarding Verdugo’s place of work, as he was Medina’s co-worker, and whether he and Medina had a romantic, emotional or sexual relationship.

Verdugo denied having anything past a friendly co-worker relationship with Medina. He even described the friendship with his coworker as one where they “often had non-work related conversations at work”.

Verdugo and Medina were both also attending financial literacy courses in Yuma.

On the night of her death, the course was canceled and Verdugo notified Medina. At Medina’s request, she asked to meet up with him to talk about personal problems she was having, according to Verdugo.

After Verdugo agreed they arranged to meet at a Family Dollar store in Somerton, near their place of work. Verdugo arrived first, then followed by Medina. She then jumped into his car as she was carrying a 12-pack of beer.

Verdugo mentioned that while they talked, Medina seemed distraught throughout the time that they were in his parked car outside of their place of work. Her phone kept receiving numerous text messages and phone calls.

Moments later he remembered stepping out of the car since Medina was hysteric upon noticing Quintero approaching them.

From there, Verdugo attempted to reason with Quintero as he pulled the gun on them and eventually shot Verdugo in the face. A feeling he described as that of “an awful migraine”. The prosecution also showed pieces of teeth that belonged to Verdugo which he lost from the blast of the bullet.

Verdugo went on to describe the details of Medina’s death. He recalled seeing Quintero approaching Medina and shooting her, Quintero then walked back to Verdugo and told him that he would “spare his life” and that “if he knew what [Verdugo] had done to his family”.

He then proceeded to go back towards Medina and told her “You’re not dead yet…” and followed it by calling her an explicit and eventually fired again at Medina, according to Verdugo.

A shocking moment took place when State prosecutors asked Verdugo if the man that shot both him and his friend was in the room. Verdugo was asked to identify him by pointing at him and describing a piece of clothing that he was wearing. To which Verdugo responded with “him in the gray shirt ” pointing in Quintero’s direction, all while Quintero nodded his head in an agitated manner as if agreeing.

The trial continued with explicit details of the injuries that Verdugo sustained. Images of him in the hospital, attached to various tubes and with a golf-ball sized injury on the right of his face, were presented to the jury.

UPDATE (3 p.m.): Wednesday in court Hugo Verdugo, the victim who police say Oscar Quintero shot in the face, identified Quintero when he was asked to point to the man who shot Clarissa Medina. Oscar nodded at him as Verdugo identified him, and according to our reporter, Quintero seemed agitated with the exchange.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Pictures of a bed full of flower petals in the shape of a heart with three single roses were presented to the jury as evidence of a search warrant presented by the Somerton Police Department ( SPD ) a week after the murder of Clarissa Medina.

During the trial Wednesday, Officer Higuera detailed the search of the shared home of Oscar Quintero and Clarissa Medina on January 10, 2018. He claimed he was in charge of searching the master bedroom and bathroom.

Officer Higuera found a blue spiral notebook with journal entries inside detailing Quintero’s perception of Clarissa.

One entry titled, “My family broken by mom Clarissa.” The State of Arizona asked the officer if it was safe to say Quintero had negative feelings towards Medina, and he answered, ” Yes. ”

They also found an entry written a year before the murder on January 2, 2017, titled, “Moving on in my life.” The entry was about the alleged murderer moving on with his life after a restraining order Medina served him with. It summarized getting out of jail, moving on, and getting a new number to avoid calling Medina.

We will update this article as the trial continues.