Jose Esteban Zuniga
A jury on Thursday convicted Jose Esteban Cardenas Zuniga, a 41-year-old Mammoth Lakes man, of first-degree murder for the killing of a 25-year-old prostitute, Yacshicka Watts, whose body was dumped a decade ago in a Santa Ana parking lot, according to the OCDA.
Ten years later and prostitutes are still getting killed in Santa Ana! Some things never change. Continue reading
Santa Ana has had a problem with prostitution for some time – and the prostitutes have been at times targeted by murderous criminals. The trail of one of those suspects, Jose Esteban Cardenas Zuniga, a 41-year old resident of Mammoth Lakes, started today, according to the O.C. Register.
Zuniga is charged with killing a then 25-year old prostitute, Yacshicka Watts, whose body was found at a Santa Ana business park, early in the morning, on Oct. 20, 2007, by transients. Continue reading
Yacshicka Watts was found deceased on October 20, 2007, when she was 25-years-old in the parking lot of a commercial complex located at the 2300 block of West Second Street, in Santa Ana, according to the Orange County Cold Case Homicide Task Force.
Santa Ana Police detectives determined that she had been strangled and initial forensic testing located DNA evidence that identified 39-year-old Jose Esteban Zuniga as a possible suspect in the incident.
The case however grew cold as primary leads in the case failed to gain enough corroborating evidence to charge Zuniga with a crime. Continue reading