Prosecution says jealousy led Healdsburg man to kill cousin

<p>In a taped statement played for jurors Wednesday, the 21-year-old defendant tell police another man shot his cousin to death in June 2007 after they all drove down a deserted dirt road west of Healdsburg.</p><p>But later, Sonoma County Sheriff’s detective Joe Dulworth testified, after several hours of talking, Jose Mendez Gonzalez finally confessed: “He said, ‘I did it.’"</p><p>Mendez is on trial for the murder of his 17-year-old cousin, Pedro “Pepe” Gonzalez Ruiz, late at night along a narrow stretch of dirt off Westside Road. The cousins worked at Molsberry’s Market in Larkfield. </p><p>Mendez apparently told detectives that he killed Gonzalez because his younger cousin had recently lost a lot of weight and was hitting on other men’s girlfriends, including his.</p><p>“He couldn’t handle seeing him every day at work,” Dulworth said, paraphrasing Mendez’s explanation.</p><p>A third cousin, Miguel Guzman, then 17, was convicted as a juvenile with being an accessory after the fact.</p><p>Gonzalez was shot four times once in the chest and three times in the head -- and left to die by the roadside. He was a student at Marce Becerra Academy, a continuation school on the Healdsburg High School campus.</p><p>Mendez repeatedly told detectives that a third man known only as “Wicker” fired the fatal shots after telling Mendez to leave the area.</p><p>“He pointed the gun at my forehead,” Mendez said in the videotape. “He told me to drive off. I drove off. I never heard nothing from my cousin again.” </p><p>After describing the late night encounter to detectives, Mendez took them to the scene and showed them where Gonzalez was shot and where he said he threw a gun, gloves and a black shirt out of his car as he drove away, Dulworth testified.</p><p>A handgun gun believed to have been used in the killing was found nearby in heavy brush.</p><p>Mendez described “Wicker” in detail, including a “pea-sized” mole near his right temple, but said he didn’t know his name and that no one in his family knew the man.</p><p>Later, Dulworth said, Mendez admitted shooting his cousin three times, the first into the back of the head.</p><p>“The victim fell to the ground. He heard the victim making noise and it bothered him,” Dulworth testified. “He turned around and shot him again in the chest.” He said Mendez told him he dragged Gonzales off the road as he continued to make sounds.</p><p>“He shot him again in the upper forehead,” Dulworth said Mendez told him.</p><p>At other times in other interviews, Mendez attributed those actions to “Wicker,” or said both he and “Wicker” shot Gonzalez.</p><p>Mendez said his cousin had gotten off work from the market in the afternoon and called him to pick up “Wicker” as he drove home after his shift ended at 8 p.m. Mendez said he picked up the man off a Highway 101 off-ramp in Healdsburg, then continued to the city’s Carl’s Jr., where all three drove off together. </p><p>He said “Wicker” gave the driving directions, which he didn’t question, and the trio ended up in rural Sonoma County.</p><p>Mendez remains in custody at Sonoma County Jail during the trial, which continues this week.</p>