Trial Opens for Suspect in Killing of Grocer

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

Jyotsna Prajapati, 29, was found shot to death in 1995 at her Van Nuys market, and her 2-year-old daughter was found asleep behind the counter.

As trial began for Aaron Reynoso, now 21, Deputy Dist. Atty. Shellie Samuels told jurors in Van Nuys that witnesses saw Reynoso enter the market before the shooting, and heard him brag about it later.

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

But Deputy Public Defender Rose Reglos said Reynoso’s mother will testify that he was nowhere near the store at the time of the killing. The family was having dinner at a restaurant after having visited 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 the victim’s husband, Kamlesh, 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 and worked 13-hour days at their grocery store, the Top Produce Market on Van Nuys Boulevard, just north of Sherman Way, according to relatives.

Customers remembered her as very generous, allowing people to buy on credit or giving them the merchandise for a lower price if they came up short on cash.

Robert Mendoza, who was homeless at the time, testified Thursday that he saw Reynoso and another man in the market on July 11, 1995. Mendoza said he was 25 cents short for the beer he was buying, but that Prajapati let him have it.

Moments later, at about 6 p.m., prosecutors said, she confronted Reynoso and his companion--both gang members, authorities say--when they tried to leave without paying for their beer, and she was shot in the head.

Mendoza said he saw the pair rush out of the store. He said 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.

“I ran to the store to see what happened,” Mendoza recounted. “I found her on the floor. She was in a pool of blood.”

Prajapati died five hours later at Northridge Hospital Medical Center.

It was not until 1997 that a man told police that he shared a cell with Reynoso in juvenile hall in the summer of 1995. He said the defendant, who was detained on an unrelated offense, told him he was responsible for the death of the woman who “got blasted” at the market weeks earlier. He came forward, he said, because it was the right thing to do, the prosecutor said.

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

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Samuels said Reynoso also bragged to a friend at a party, saying he and another gang member had run out of beer and went out for a “beer run,” which she said is slang for stealing beer. It was this friend who told authorities that Reynoso said the victim was accidentally killed when he hit her with a gun and it went off.