SIMI VALLEY : Court Hears Tape of Slaying Admission

In a tape-recording played Tuesday at a Ventura County murder trial, the defendant admitted to police that he killed a man at a Simi Valley ranch nearly four years ago.

“I shot him a couple of times in the head,” Roberto Benavidez said on the audiotape.

Benavidez, 39, is accused of first-degree murder in the slaying of Marcos Scott in October or November of 1988. The exact date is unknown because the crime came to light only last February.

That was when two hikers came upon a skull, later identified as Scott’s, while trekking through a ravine at the western edge of Simi Valley. The skull had apparently been unearthed by heavy rains, and investigators found the rest of the remains about 10 feet away.

Until recently, the site was part of the Livingston Ranch, a horse boarding farm where Benavidez had been foreman from 1979 until 1991, when it closed. Scott lived there for a few weeks until he disappeared in late 1988, Glynn told the jury.

Benavidez told investigators several stories, Glynn said. First, Benavidez said Scott threatened him and he shot in self-defense, the prosecutor said. In an interview five days later, Benavidez said he had confessed only because police had picked up his girlfriend and he feared that she would be charged with the crime, Glynn said.

But Glynn said the important thing was Benavidez’s statement that he shot the victim twice--a detail that had not been released to the media and something that only the killer would know, Glynn said.

He said Benavidez’s cousin, Javier Vasquez, will testify that the defendant told him that he killed Scott because the victim owed him money for cocaine.

In his opening statement, Benavidez’s defense attorney, Ira S. Chester, said his client had learned of the number of shots from Vasquez, who Chester said is the real murderer.

The trial resumes today in Judge Lawrence Storch’s courtroom.