South OC Man Charged With Strangling Friend To Death In Garage

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, CA — A 62-year-old Rancho Santa Margarita man strangled his friend to death when she called him an idiot and explained she had been using him for years, but his attorney told jurors Thursday that the fatal attack was committed in the heat of the moment and did not meet the requirements of a murder charge.

Jose Valdez Jimenez is charged with one count of murder on suspicion of killing 57-year-old Natalia Gamino Jaimes on Oct. 22, 2020.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Anna McIntire told the jury that the deadly attack occurred during an argument in the victim's Lake Forest garage, and that afterward, Jiminez dumped her body in Santa Ana and fled to Mexico.

The two met while working as janitors and stayed in touch after they got jobs elsewhere.
Jimenez would "often show up at her house unannounced," McIntire said in her opening statement of the trial.

The two got into a conflict when the victim's daughter, Alejandra Gamino, went to pick her son at school but found out the defendant had already done that, McIntire said.

Jaimes told Jimenez to stop doing that and called him a "philanderer" in a text message, McIntire said.

Jimenez repeatedly called her on the phone, but she ignored most of the calls, McIntire said.

The defendant came by the victim's townhome in Lake Forest and said it was a "misunderstanding," the prosecutor said. "The last (Gamino) saw her mom alive was in the garage with the defendant."

The victim's daughter went to the gym and when she returned home, she saw the garage door open, which was unusual, McIntire said. Gamino assumed her mother went to see her boyfriend, Gerson Castillo, in Santa Ana.

The next morning, when her mother had not returned home and hadn't been in touch, the victim's daughter grew "nervous," so she called Jimenez, who said the last he saw of Jaimes was when she drove away from him out of the garage, McIntire said.

"This would prove to be a lie," the prosecutor said. "And he didn't seem particularly concerned she was missing."

Gamino kept calling her mother's phone until a man finally answered and said he had just found the phone at 927 N. Pine Ave. in Santa Ana, which is where Castillo used to live, McIntire said.

Castillo, however, was quickly eliminated as a suspect, McIntire said.

Meanwhile, Jimenez "abruptly vacated" the room he was renting in Rancho Santa Margarita and asked his friend, Aida Verde Morales, to drive him to the Mexican border on Oct. 24, 2020, so he could respond to a family emergency, McIntire said.

Gamino hired a private investigator, who tracked down where the victim's car was parked in Santa Ana, McIntire said. While she was in the neighborhood putting up "missing" posters, she spotted her mother's Honda Civic and called police, who found the body inside, McIntire said. Her body was set back in a reclined seat so it was not easily seen from the street.

Surveillance video showed a man covering his face with his shirt and parking the car on Russell Street, McIntire said.

Gamino did not recognize the suspect in the black-and-white footage, but a video in color was more recognizable, McIntire said. She recognized that the suspect was wearing the same clothes Jiminez was wearing when she saw him in their garage and noticed he had the same gait.

When detectives finally spoke to Jimenez, he repeated that the last time he saw the victim she was driving away, McIntire said. When the detective said they had surveillance video indicating otherwise, he said he needed to settle some things in Mexico before returning to the U.S.

Later, he told the detective, who kept in touch regularly, that the victim "made him feel useless," McIntire said. In another conversation, he said she "assaulted him, making him feel ashamed and mad."

Jimenez said he choked her for 10 minutes in the garage in Lake Forest, McIntire alleged.

He offered to surrender at the border and the detective went to the Point of Entry and picked him up, the prosecutor said.

Evidence of broken nails, blood on the victim's hand and clumps of her hair in the car show Jaimes fought for her life, McIntire said. She suffered fractured cartilage in her neck.

The defendant's attorney, June Woo Chung of the Orange County Public Defender's Office, acknowledged that his client killed the victim and dumped her body in the car in Santa Ana before fleeing the country.

"Lastly, Natalia did not deserve to die," Chung said. "She was a person like all of us. She had her flaws." But, he added, "The issue is, `Was this homicide in fact a murder?"'

The defense attorney told jurors, "I'm going to prove to you this was not a murder. There was no premeditation or deliberation. This, quite simply, was not planned."

Jaimes "took advantage of the kindness and generosity" of the defendant, Chung said. She also exploited his romantic feelings for her.

Because the victim had bad credit, the defendant would open up lines of credit for her with a promise she would pay him back, Chung said. Jimenez also leased the car for her.

That deal was done about a month before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, but as a result of the shutdown, Jimenez's monthly income fell from $3,500 to $1,000, and the debts grew to be unmanageable, Chung said.

Jimenez was no "de facto stalker," Chung said. "She would call Jose at all hours of the day." calling in favors. She would also toy with his feelings when he would go out with other women, sending him selfies, he added.

"It was a friendship in name only, but with all the trappings of a relationship," Chung said. "She repeatedly tells him `I love you.' "

Jimenez went to talk to Jaimes on Oct. 22, 2020, to discuss her keeping up with payments on the car, Chung said. She was also just paying the minimum on a Macy's account while the interest kept swelling.

She ignored his phone calls and when he showed up at her home, she continued ignoring him, Chung said. A couple of times, she put the car in reverse, nudging him. At one point when he turns off the car, she "tells him the truth of the relationship," the defense attorney told the jurors. She said she was "financially using him the whole time" for 2 1/2 years, Chung said. "She said, `Are you an imbecile? Are you an idiot? I was using you."

Jimenez told police that in that moment "his mind went blank. ... He said, `I left my body,"' Chung said.

After the victim died, he was in "shock," so he drove her to Santa Ana, where they used to go because she had family in the area, Chung said.

After he fled to Mexico and was tracked down by police, he kept in touch with the lead detective for seven months, Chung said. There were issues at the time in crossing back into the U.S. during the pandemic.

"Try your best to keep an open mind and open heart," Chung told jurors. "When you apply the law and evidence, I'll ask you to find (Jimenez) not guilty on murder, both first- and second-degree."