More Damaging Evidence Against Zamora
(FORT WORTH, TEXAS - Feb. 4) According to Diane Zamora's former friends and classmates at
Annapolis, Zamora freely confessed her role in Adrianne Jones's murder and said that she would do it again because Jones deserved to die for trying to take David Graham away from her.
The third day of testimony in Zamora's murder trial opened with her former classmate and
squad leader Jay Guild returning to the stand. During cross-examination by the defense,
Guild said that Zamora seemed obsessed and consumed with Graham. Guild also was aware of
Zamora's injured, almost useless left hand. (The hand she used to hit Jones in the head with a dumbbell during the murder.) But, Guild testified, Zamora was still able to perform her duties and exercises at Annapolis.
Guild, who admitted during the previous day's proceedings that he had a romantic interest in
Zamora, told the court that he did not have intentions of stealing her away from Graham.
Zamora had told Guild that her relationship with Graham was sometimes dysfunctional, and Guild feared that Graham would harm Zamora if she cheated on him. (Guild said that Graham had already threatened him over his friendship with Zamora.)
However, according to Guild, Zamora told him that they could not pursue a romantic relationship
because of a promise she had made to Graham. Just like Graham had promised her that he would kill anyone who interfered in their relationship, Zamora promised her fiancee if she ever cheated on him she would kill the person with whom she had the affair. Zamora allegedly told Guild that they could not have a fling because she would have to kill him, and she considered him too much of a friend to murder him. Guild repeated his prior claim that Zamora had no regrets about her role in Jones's murder and said that her sexual rival deserved to die for the affair.
Then prosecutors brought one of Zamora's former roommates at Annapolis,
Jennifer McKearney, to the stand. McKearney testified that Zamora told her about her involvement in the murder of Jones. Zamora told McKearney that she only helped plan the murder and that Graham took Jones to a field and shot her in the head. McKearney also said that Zamora told her that she, not Graham, drove the car. (This contradicts other alleged confessions by Zamora. The defense may use various contradictions in Zamora's confessions to suggest that either her statements were coerced or made up to protect Graham.)
According to McKearney, when she asked Zamora whether she regretted killing Jones, the defendant replied that she had no regrets. Zamora allegedly told McKearney that Jones was a "bitch and a slut" who deserved to die for trying to take Graham away from her. McKearney also testified that Zamora told her that her parents and best friend knew about her involvement in Jones's murder and that they did not approach authorities because they knew that anyone who came between her and Graham would have to die.
Zamora allegedly also told McKearney that she and Graham attended Jones's funeral and that she felt sadness when she saw Jones's parents. The defendant had heard from many people that Jones was a sweet person; she wished she had known her better before her death. But, Zamora still insisted she would have killed Jones again if given a choice.
Prosecutors then called John Green, a friend of both Graham and Zamora. Green first met Graham and Zamora when they took classes for the Civil Air Patrol. After Jones's murder, Graham and Zamora went to Green's house, presumably to clean and change their bloody clothes. Green said that Graham and Zamora came to his house between two and three in the morning on December 4, 1995. Zamora was crying and upset, and Graham was trying to comfort her. This witness admitted that he was groggy from sleep and could not see the couple clearly because of darkness and his bad vision (Green was not wearing his glasses). Therefore, Green did not know whether their clothes were bloody.
However, Green noticed that the bandage that Zamora normally wore on her left hand was unfurled and thought that Graham and Zamora may have been involved in an altercation at a party. Graham, who was Green's best friend, asked him to not ask any questions about their appearance and to forget that they had come to him that night. Green said that he lent Graham a pair if black shorts and saw Graham and Zamora go to the bathroom and run water for approximately 15 minutes or a half-hour. Green said that he did not peak into the bathroom to see what the couple was doing and did not ask them any questions.
Green also testified that he thought Zamora was the "leader" in her relationship with Graham and that he never saw Graham abuse Zamora. And, he said, Zamora never told him about any instances of abuse with Graham.
Don Swanz, the forensic expert who examined the physical evidence of the case, also testified, and the defense tried to imply that he was not efficient when he performed tests on the evidence. During cross-examination by the defense, Swanz admitted that no chemical tests were performed on the murder weapon to test for fingerprints and that no tests for human blood were performed on the gun. This questioning was meant to imply that detectives were not efficient in their investigation of the case.
The last witness called for the day was Dr. Marc Krouse, who examined Adrianne Jones's fatal injuries. Dr. Krouse said that eventually, even without the gunshot wounds to the head, the severity of the skull fracture allegedly inflicted by Zamora upon Jones would have killed Jones without medical treatment. However, Krouse also testified that Jones's head fracture was more likely inflicted by the butt of a gun and not a dumbbell. Dr. Krouse will return to the stand for cross-examination by the defense tomorrow.
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