Prostitute’s Testimony Is Key to Case : Closing Pleas Made in Killing of 2 Sisters

A prosecutor Monday called the shooting deaths of two sisters as they sat in their car an “execution” and urged a jury to convict the son of one of them.

In closing arguments at the murder trial of Charles (Carlos) de la Cuesta, Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela Davis-Springer told jurors to consider the substance of the testimony of the prosecution’s key witness--an admitted prostitute and heroin addict--and not her life style.

“She’s a hooker and she’s a hype,” Davis-Springer said. “But she had no reason to think that everyone would disbelieve her when she said this man shot those two ladies. . . . Has there been any evidence presented that would cause you to disbelieve her?”

The prostitute, Joanna Aguirre, testified during the San Fernando Superior Court trial that she saw De la Cuesta arguing with his mother, Angie Hernandez, 61, and his aunt, Mary Gomez, 52, near the intersection of Van Nuys Boulevard and Telfair Avenue just moments before she heard the shots that killed the two women.

De la Cuesta is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths.

The prosecution’s case rests heavily on Aguirre’s testimony. No physical evidence directly linked De la Cuesta to the killings. The murder weapon was not recovered.

Relatives and friends of De la Cuesta, who had posted a $5,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the sisters’ killer, have rallied around the Mission Hills man, insisting that he never would have harmed the women.

Outside the courtroom, family members speculated that Aguirre, whose brother is married to the sister of De la Cuesta’s wife, was after the reward money when she decided to talk to the police more than three months after the killings.

Aguirre testified during the trial that she first heard about the reward “about one or two months after” she first reported what she had seen.

More than 50 of De la Cuesta’s supporters watched the closing arguments in the trial Monday, including De la Cuesta’s wife, Donna, who wept quietly as defense attorney Max Herman told how she had thrown De la Cuesta out of the house after an argument a few hours before Hernandez and Gomez were killed.

De la Cuesta testified that he spent the night in his camper after he and his wife argued about his suspicion that she was seeing another man.

Family members said after the shootings that Hernandez and Gomez were on their way to help resolve the quarrel when they were killed.

“You would shoot someone who you thought was running around on you, and not the mother,” Herman argued, noting that De la Cuesta testified he spent the night in his camper after the fight.

“He cried himself to sleep because he wanted to go home and be with his wife and kids,” Herman said. “When he is informed of what happened to his mother and aunt, he becomes hysterical, which is understandable. . . . Does that sound like a man who’s just killed his mother and aunt?”

Herman also noted that De la Cuesta was described as a “gentle man” by relatives and neighbors, several of whom testified that they saw the car De la Cuesta allegedly drove to the slaying site parked in front of the De la Cuesta house at the time the shootings took place.

Springer-Davis argued that jurors should convict De la Cuesta based on Aguirre’s testimony, despite the lack of physical evidence against him.

“She has a lot to lose by testifying,” Springer-Davis said. “She’s a street person. She’s got to go back out on the streets after this is over.”

Jurors are expected to begin their deliberations today.