Witness: Accused killer admitted he hurt someone hours after slaying
The Riverhead man accused of murdering 29-year-old Mariam Yohana Garcia Mancilla in 2012 looked “scared” hours after the killing and told someone at a Main Street deli that he may have hurt a woman and didn’t know if she was alive or dead, according to testimony at the man’s murder trial Tuesday afternoon.
The accused killer, Guillermo “Chino” Alvarado-Ajcuc, was seen at the same bar — Sabor Latino — as Ms. Garcia Mancilla on May 6, and was seen drinking in a Riverhead deli the next morning, said Rigoberto Coslaya, an acquaintance of both the victim and the accused man.
Mr. Coslaya testified that he spoke with Mr. Alvarado-Ajcuc at the deli sometime around 11 a.m., and asked why he was “scared,” noting that he seemed hungover or worried.
Mr. Alvarado-Ajcuc said that he might have “stepped on” a woman — using a Spanish slang word meaning “hurt,” Mr. Coslaya said in court.
The body of Ms. Garcia Mancilla — who worked at an Aquebogue marina and played soccer locally — was found the next day in the bushes near the Sabor Latino parking lot, in the same shopping center as the Department of Motor Vehicles on the north side of Route 58.
DAY 1 OF THE TRIAL: “This isn’t a ‘whodunnit,’ but it is a ‘what happened.’ “
Mr. Alvarado-Ajcuc’s attorney, Eileen Powers, asked whether her client had made this statement in Spanish or in Kaqchikel, a Mayan language spoken by many in Guatemala where Mr. Alvarado-Ajcuc is from.
Mr. Coslaya said Mr. Alvarado-Ajcuc spoke in Spanish.
Ms. Powers had previously said in court that detectives were unaware Mr. Alvarado-Ajcuc spoke a different language, and noted in her opening statement that Spanish was used in the interrogation, during which her client allegedly confessed.
Witnesses also noted that Mr. Alvarado-Ajcuc had long hair at the time of the killing; authorities have alleged the man attempted to hide his appearance by cutting his hair before he was arrested.
