Preliminary hearing for man accused of murdering attorney Ann Marie Zimmerman
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Brawley Superior Court said on Tuesday afternoon there’s enough evidence against Ion Laurint for the case to go to trial. Laurint is accused of murdering attorney Anne Marie Zimmerman.
At the hearing, an El Centro Police officer said there was a strong smell coming from room number 9 at El Centro’s Golden West Motel when he checked it on the morning of February 17.
“Soon as I hit the – got closer to the door – I smelled a strong pungent odor which I believe is the smell of a dead person,” Officer Christopher Jones said.
Jones said Laurint was on the bed, bloodied and unconscious; there were bloodied knives on a night table, as well.
“A male subject, his head and his shoulder, and the rest of his body was covered and behind his head noticed a bunch of blood. And behind his head, on a night stand I noticed two steak knives with black handles silver, with red substance of red blood,” Jones said.
The nude body of Zimmerman was found under the blankets.
Deputy Coroner Derrick Lindberg said there were 4 defensive wounds on Zimmerman’s hands and arms – 14 stab wounds in total on her body.
“One was approximately one inch in length laceration on the outside of the right forearm. There were two wounds on the palm side of the inside of the hand. Approximately 10 other wounds to the chest, neck area of the body,” Lindberg said.
Detective Louis Hernandez said that during an interview, Laurint talked about having an affair with Zimmerman over the course of several years, and had planted a hard drive and phone at her officer for husband to discover. He said Laurint talked about wanting to live with Zimmerman but had also considered a murder-suicide.
“Earlier in the interview, that the letters were written prior to everything happening and then that he had planned – put the hard drive and the phone in her office. So, I said, you had planned all this to kill her and to kill yourself. He said, yes, I planned it but I didn’t mean to – I don’t know how it happened,” Hernandez said.
