Murder Trial Begins in Killing of Store Owner

Facing life in prison without parole, a gang member listened Thursday as prosecutors told jurors that at the age of 16, he killed a grocery store owner because she tried to stop him from stealing a 12-pack of beer.

Jyotasna Prajapati, 29, was found shot to death in 1995 at her Van Nuys market, while her 2-year-old daughter was behind the counter of the family store.

As the trial began for Aaron Reynoso, Deputy Dist. Atty. Shellie Samuels told jurors that two witnesses, including a beer-drinking homeless man, saw Reynoso enter the market before the shooting, and two informants later heard him brag about the slaying.

“He said he went to pistol whip her and the gun went off,” Samuels said.

Deputy Public Defender Rose Reglos said Reynoso’s mother will testify that her son was having dinner with the family at a restaurant. They had just come from visiting the grave of Reynoso’s father, who had died of a heart attack months earlier, the lawyer said.

“The person who killed Mrs. Prajapati is not in this courtroom,” Reglos said.

Prosecutors are seeking a conviction of first-degree murder in the commission of a robbery and burglary, special circumstances that carry a sentence of life without possibility of parole.

Prem Prajapati, the victim’s brother-in-law, said her husband is in India, where he is remarrying. He said it is unclear how much of the crime their daughter, Atithi now 7, witnessed or remembers.

In the years before her death, Prajapati, a native of India, lived in Panorama City with her husband and toddler. She worked 13-hour days at the family grocery store, the Top Produce Market on Van Nuys Boulevard, relatives said.

Customers remembered her as generous, allowing people to buy on credit or pay lower prices if they came up short on cash.

A man who was homeless at the time testified Thursday that he saw Reynoso and another man in the market on July 11, 1995. Robert Mendoza said he was a quarter short for the beer, but that Prajapati let him have it.

Moments later, about 6 p.m., prosecutors said, she confronted the gang members when they tried to leave with the beer and then was shot in the head.

Mendoza testified that he saw the assailants rush out of the store. He said in court that Reynoso was carrying a 12-pack of beer and smiling and his companion had what looked like the bulge of a gun in his waistband. He said they sped off in a black sports car.

The woman died five hours later at a Northridge hospital.

It was not until 1997 that a man told police that he had shared a room with Reynoso in juvenile hall two years earlier. He said Reynoso told him he was responsible for the woman who “got blasted” at the market, according to Samuels. He came forward, he said, because it was the right thing to do, she said.

Reglos, the defense lawyer, said the man came forward to collect a $25,000 reward, and fabricated the story based on media reports.