Friend Of Palo Alto Murder Victim Testifies In Trial
SAN JOSE (BCN) -- The night before Jennifer Schipsi was strangled and set ablaze, she said she was 'done' and could not handle it anymore as she walked home alone from her boyfriend's hookah lounge in Palo Alto, her friend testified in court Monday.
"They fought a lot," Jaber Al-Suwaidi said of the 29-year-old real estate agent, who was killed on Oct. 15, 2009, and her boyfriend, Bulos "Paul" Zumot, the 37-year-old owner of Da Hookah Spot charged with murder and arson in connection with her death.
Prosecutors claim that Zumot killed Schipsi and then set their Addison Avenue home on fire with her body inside. The couple had a history of domestic abuse and reportedly got into a fight the night before Schipsi's death following a dinner celebrating Zumot's 36th birthday in Sunnyvale.
Al Suwaidi, a friend of Schipsi and Zumot, was one of five witnesses to take the stand on the fifth day of the trial. He testified about the text messages he exchanged with Schipsi the day before her death, many of them concerning Zumot.
He said he was not able to go to the dinner because he was moving that night. He sent Schipsi a text as she was on her way from Sunnyvale to Palo Alto, inviting the couple to his new house.
He said Schipsi's response was "Can't. My phone was just thrown at me," and "Someone can't handle me texting." She later called him to say that she was walking home from Da Hookah Spot while "crying hysterically and breathing heavily," Al Suwaidi said.
"She said she's done and she can't handle it anymore," Al Suwaidi said. "She said that he humiliated her."
He said he and Schipsi text messaged each other regularly and that he had a feeling a message Schipsi sent him on the afternoon of Oct. 15 was not actually written by her, but by Zumot.
Al Suwaidi said he received a few text messages from Schipsi that afternoon, one saying that Zumot was drunk the previous night in response to a message he'd sent her asking why Zumot was "pissed" at him.
Another text message Al Suwaidi received from her said that Zumot was in San Jose with his attorney. He said the text was uncharacteristically formal for Schipsi, who typically wrote in shorthand and abbreviations.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos showed examples of texts sent by Zumot that were similar to Schipsi's and pressed Al Suwaidi to explain on what he had based that opinion.
Al Suwaidi said he was a good enough friend of both to know their writing styles, but later said it was just his opinion and that he really did not know who had sent the message.
Many of the text messages Shipsi sent to Al Suwaidi were deleted from her phone, but not from his, prosecutor Chuck Gillingham said.
William Koopman, a neighbor who lives next door to their cottage, also testified. He said he heard the voice of either a teenage boy or a woman from the cottage on the afternoon of Oct. 15, and that it sounded like he was listening to one side of a conversation.
The owner of the cottage, John Eckland, who lives at the back of the property, and Eden Salomon, a woman who had previously lived at the burned cottage and was a guest at Eckland's on Oct. 15, also testified.
Salomon and Eckland both helped extinguish the fire before police and firefighters arrived. Eckland said she noticed that the fire was contained to only the master bedroom and that it had not reached the second bedroom.
Eckland said that on the afternoon of Oct. 15, when he went to check his mail, he found a silver and diamond bracelet near the doorstep of the cottage and called Zumot at his business to tell him about it.
He called Zumot again that night to tell him his cottage was on fire.
He also said that on that day, as he pulled out of his driveway to go to the gym, he saw a white car on the block and someone sitting in the driver's seat suspiciously shielding his or her face with a magazine.
He said, though, that he had seen the car many times after the fire.
Of Zumot and Schipsi's relationship, he said he had never heard them fight.
The final testimony of the day was given by Palo Alto police Sgt. Cornelius Maloney, who called the medical examiner on the morning of Oct. 16.
Maloney will continue with his testimony Tuesday morning.
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