Transgender Prostitute Killed Man, Jurors Told

A transgender prostitute who went home with a 78-year-old retiree two years ago fatally beat the elderly man inside his bedroom, took his wallet and then fled the county, a Ventura County prosecutor told jurors Thursday.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John West said evidence to be presented in coming weeks will show that James Cid, 31, who uses the name Jamie, beat widower Jack Jamar into a coma and robbed him after Jamar brought Cid to his Ventura house for sex.

Jamar, whose teeth were knocked into his stomach during the assault, later died, and prosecutors charged Cid with murder and robbery.

But defense attorney Robert Sheahen told jurors his client is innocent of the charges. Sheahen described Cid as a “loving, nonviolent person” who acted in self-defense after being attacked by Jamar.

“The evidence will show Jamie could only strike back,” Sheahen said during opening statements in the trial in Ventura County Superior Court. “As she said at one point, ‘She was fighting for her life when Jack went crazy on her.’ ”

As Sheahen spoke, Cid, dressed in a leather coat, white button-down blouse and pinstriped dress pants, sat at the defense counsel table and occasionally whispered with defense attorney Moriya Christie.

During opening statements, the prosecutor and defense lawyer referred to Cid as “he” and at other times as “she.”

Sheahen told jurors his client ended up on the streets, living among prostitutes, thieves and drug addicts, after being ostracized as a teenager because of a gender-identity disorder.

“James Daniel Cid reached the age of 12, and the evidence will show there was something decidedly different about him from the other boys,” Sheahen said. “This was not some weirdo choice; this was the oddity that nature ordained for Jamie Cid.”

Prosecutors contend Cid was working as a prostitute on March 10, 2000, when Jamar picked him up on Ventura Avenue in his Cadillac.

When the pair arrived at Jamar’s Varsity Avenue house, prosecutors say, the elderly man stripped off his clothes, which were found in the hallway, and he and Cid got into a violent struggle in the bedroom that left Jamar with a split scalp.

West told jurors the evidence will show Cid stole Jamar’s wallet, bought a car and headed out of town with a boyfriend.

Two Ventura police officers found Jamar in his bloodstained bed after a woman who discovered his empty wallet on the nearby Ventura College campus gave it to Jamar’s neighbor, who called police.

Jamar’s head wounds were so severe, West said, that “the officers initially thought Jack was shot in the head.”

At the hospital, doctors found Jamar’s teeth in his stomach during surgery to insert a feeding tube.

Cid was arrested in San Diego County 18 days after the assault. During an interview with two Ventura police detectives, Cid initially denied being in Jamar’s house.

But later in a videotaped interview, portions of which the prosecutor played for the jury, Cid calls Jamar “a filthy, dirty man” and admits hitting him in the head.

“He tried to rape me,” Cid told detectives. “I remember just trying to get away from him, fighting for my life.”

During the interview, a detective searching Cid’s purse found a letter written by Cid in which Cid states: “I had to leave town because I hurt Jack, the old man ... He picked me up and got crazy with me at his house.”

Sheahen told jurors that witnesses would testify that Jamar had a violent reputation, owned guns and had “a revolving door of prostitutes at his house.”

The lawyer urged jurors to look carefully at the evidence and suggested the robbery theory would not hold up.

Testimony got underway Thursday afternoon and is expected to continue today.