Questions about alcohol use, memories of details dominate Day 5 of murder trial

Trial resumes at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Department 11 in the Justice Center

Questions about of alcohol consumption — how much and what? — and the ability to remember details — what happened when and where? — were the threads of much testimony Thursday during the fifth day of the Solano County Superior Court murder trial of a 35-yearold Vacaville man charged with fatally stabbing another man in October 2018 outside a rural Vacaville home.

Late in the morning session in Department 11 in Fairfield, Gary Nofuentes, the father of a young girl and her contested custody status that goes to the heart of the case against Kristofer Michael Wiliams, testified that he had “three or four beers and a couple of whiskeys” during an after-funeral reception for a deceased friend on Oct. 23 in Vacaville.

Nofuentes, 34, told Deputy District Attorney Ilana Shapiro that he returned to his home in the 5800 block of Fry Road afterward, where Williams confronted Nofuentes’ housemate and longtime friend, Jonathan “Jonny” Russell, 30, and, in an attempt to wrest the girl from his arms, allegedly stabbed Russell in the neck.

But before Russell suffered a wound that would later prove fatal, Williams is believed to have faced off with Nofuentes inside the home “punching” him in the stomach, but Nofuentes, drunk according to previous witness accounts, could not recall being punched or Williams even being inside the home.

He told Shapiro that he remembered “a large figure” in the house but did not identify that person as Williams. Nofuentes told Shapiro that he felt “a sharp pain” in his stomach and was later taken to Kaiser Permanente Vacaville Medical Center later in the evening, where he underwent surgery for a knife wound and spent 10 days in recovery.

Still on the witness stand at the outset of the afternoon session, Nofuentes characterized Williams as being “angry” in the house and that’s when “I felt the sharp pain in my side.”

“Did you see Mr. Williams with a knife?” asked Shapiro.

“No, I did not,” replied Nofuentes.

But Shapiro reminded him that he told a social worker that he had told Williams to “calm down” before being “punched,” with Nofuentes telling the prosecutor that he “couldn’t breathe,” was in severe pain, “then I blacked out.”

The next thing he recalled was “running to a cop car” and “waking up in the back of a cop car.”

“I woke up feeling l was in an oven,” Nofuentes told Shapiro, adding that the pain “was “the most severe” he had ever felt in his life. “I saw everything hanging out of my stomach,” then he screamed, with a Sheriff’s deputy standing nearby wondering what was going on.

Nofuentes suspected he had been stabbed and testified that he awoke in the hospital but did not know, he told Shapiro, that Russell had been stabbed or where his daughter, then 9, was.

Nofuentes recounted some of his physical rehabilitation during his 10day hospital stay, including a memory of a nurse asking him if he “wanted to say goodbye” to Russell, an allusion to Russell, being taken off life support and succumbing to his neck wound. Nofuentes also recalled his surgery this past May for removing scar tissue wrapped around his small intestine, requiring a seven-day hospital stay.

His testimony was curtailed for about 20 minutes while Dr. Arnold Josselson, a forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on Russell, testified that Russell died of a “stab wound to the right side of the neck.”

Shapiro showed graphic autopsy photos of Russell’s upper torso, neck and head, then asked Josselson if he was able to determine the depth of the stab wound, and the doctor said he could not.

When Nofuentes returned to the witness stand, Williams’ lawyer, Daniel Russo of Vallejo, conceded during his crossexamination that Oct. 23, 2018, was “the worst day” of Nofuentes’ life, that he lost his best friend, and that his daughter was traumatized by what happened.

Alluding to a question from Shapiro, that, on a scale of 1 to 10, his level of intoxication was “a 6,” Russo asked Nofuentes, “Is it possible you were more intoxicated that you thought?”

“No,” replied Nofuentes. At that point, Russo honed in on his Nofuentes’ actions and questioned his level of intoxication, asking if he was able to care for his daughter, showed photos of liquor bottles atop a refrigerator in the home and a beer carton or beer containers in another location in the same photo.

Russo also suggested that Nofuentes went to drink at Williams’ home to drink some more, which drew a sharp objection from Shapiro, who called it “speculation.”

The defense attorney further questioned Nofuentes about his food purchases that day (none), when he last bought food (no recollection), and whether he had “any concern” about his daughter seeing him “at level 6” of intoxication (no).

Nofuentes admitted being unable to recall being stabbed “until I woke up in the back of a police car,” which occurred about 10 p.m., according to testimony on Wednesday.

“Have you talked to your daughter about what happened that night?” asked Russo.

“No, I have not,” said Nofuentes.

Court records indicate Solano County Sheriff’s investigators said Williams was disturbed by an ongoing child custody battle and believed Nofuentes’ daughter belonged with her mother, Kailyn Scarlett Gibson, who at the time was a friend of Williams and was seeking to gain custody rights in Solano County Family Court. Williams traveled to the home in an attempt to get the girl.

Thursday’s proceedings followed equally dramatic testimony on Wednesday, when a witness told Shapiro

that he heard Williams, who was 32 at the time, allegedly tell Russell, “Do you want to be shot or stabbed?”

And on Sept. 30 Solano County Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Demarest, the first witness of the trial, testified during cross-examination by Russo, that a young, frightened girl inside the home told him the men there were “drunk and crazy.”

Judge William J. Pendergast previously severed the trials of people connected to the crime.

Gibson, 31, was initially charged with dissuading a witness; cruelty to a child by inflicting injury; and eavesdropping by recording confidential information. After her arrest on Nov. 16, 2018, she posted a $75,000 bond and was released from custody. She is represented by Fairfield criminal defense attorney Denis Honeychurch. If convicted at trial, Gibson, who returns to court at 8:30 a.m. Dec. 8 to set a preliminary hearing, may face as much as three years in prison.

Also charged in the case is Jessica Anne Weirich, 30, who reportedly drove Williams to the Fry Road home, just south of Elmira. She was initially accused of being an accessory after the fact. After her arrest, also on Nov. 16, she posted a $25,000 bond and was released from custody. She is represented by defense attorney Barry K. Newman. If convicted at trial, Weirich, who also returns to court on Dec. 8 for the same proceedings, likewise may face as much as three years in prison.

In addition to the murder charge, Williams faces four related felony charges. They include kidnapping of a minor under 14; assault with a deadly weapon; child endangerment; and burglary of an inhabited dwelling. He remains without bail in the Stanton Correctional Facility in Fairfield.

During a held-to-answer arraignment in late October 2019, Williams pleaded not guilty to all charges. If found guilty of them all at trial, however, he may face more than 50 years in state prison.

The trial resumes at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Department 11 in the Justice Center in Fairfield.