Girlfriend of Santa Rosa slaying suspect blames bad LSD trip

A bad LSD trip caused the fatal stabbing of a homeless woman walking near a popular Santa Rosa trick-or-treat spot on Halloween two years ago, a witness testified Friday.

Jessy Zetino, 22, began hallucinating after taking two hits of the mind-altering drug at a costume party in the McDonald Avenue neighborhood, his girlfriend testified at his preliminary hearing.

She said he panicked when people started “turning into demons” and decided to go for a walk to clear his head.

But something dark happened along the way. When Zetino reunited with his girlfriend after midnight at a friend’s Fourth Street apartment, he was covered in blood and insisting he attacked someone with a knife, she said.

“He said ‘I think I stabbed someone and I think it was a woman,’?” Zoe Kind testified in a Santa Rosa courtroom as Zetino listened from across the room. “I didn’t believe him.”

She said the two looked for a body without finding one and drove back to the “shed” where he lived behind his parents’ house to go to sleep.

They were awakened the next morning by a call from their friend saying a woman later identified as Michela Wooldridge, 24, was found stabbed to death on a Fourth Street sidewalk.

She said she watched Zetino pack his bloody clothes in a plastic garbage bag and throw it in a dumpster.

He described walking down a sidewalk the night before, “starting to trip badly,” when he inexplicably pulled a Batman-logo knife from his pocket and began stabbing a homeless person who walked by, she said.

“He didn’t have a reason,” Kind testified. “He just said he jumped her.”

An autopsy found Wooldridge suffered a total of 13 stab wounds, including seven to her back, police Detective Brian Boettger later testified. Wooldridge’s mother, who attended the hearing with other family members, held her hands over her ears through parts of the testimony.

Kind said she agreed to keep Zetino’s secret as the two continued an on-again, off-again relationship for about two years after the slaying.

She said he asked if she told anyone about his “little accident” when they bumped into each other months later at an event in Oakland.

“I said no,” she testified. “I don’t even like thinking about it. I block it out.”

Meanwhile, the investigation went cold without a suspect. A break came last year when Zetino was picked up on a drug charge and gave a routine DNA sample. It matched material found under Woolridge’s fingernails that was stored in a criminal justice database, Boettger said.

Zetino, who had been released from custody, was unaware police were building a murder case against him.

Police identified Kind through Zetino’s phone records and sent her an anonymous letter containing a newspaper clipping about the slaying, Boettger said. It included a hand-written message that said “‘Repent,’ or ‘It’s time to repent,’” Kind testified.

“I got really freaked out and started crying,” she said.

She called Zetino, like detectives were hoping, and met with him to discuss the situation at Franklin Park.

Zetino was arrested Aug. 19. He confessed to the killing in a police interview, Boettger said.

Judge Rene Chouteau ruled Friday there was enough to try him on murder charges. Zetino faces life in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors agreed not to prosecute Kind in exchange for her testimony.

The victim’s family declined to comment.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ppayne.