A witness to the late-October 2021 killing of a 19-year-old woman in Fairfield testified that the defendant on trial in Solano County Superior Court told him “to hide the body.”
On the witness stand Thursday in Department 11 in Fairfield, Juan Parra-Peralta said Jessica Yesenia Quintanilla also stated, as the pair unloaded the body of Leilani Beauchamp, wrapped in a blanket, in Corral De Tierra Road area in Salinas on Oct. 30, “We should burn the body.”
But Parra-Peralta, 23, noting in testimony Wednesday that Quintanilla threatened to shoot and kill him if he did not cooperate, advised against it, telling Deputy District Attorney Ilana Shapiro, “No. It’s too light outside.”
So, testified Parra-Peralta, in the afternoon of that day, Quintanilla and Parra-Peralta left Beauchamp’s body, wrapped in blanket, some 10 yards beyond the roadside and down a hill, hiding it amid vegetation, and drove to Quintanilla’s grandmother’s house in Pittsburg.
At that point, pausing her direct questioning, Shapiro, leading the prosecution for a third day, showed to the 12-member jury two photos in evidence: one showing Beauchamp’s wrapped body later discovered by Monterey County Sheriff and Fairfield police investigators, the other showing her partly clothed body after the blanket was removed.
Quintanilla, 24, of Pittsburg, is alleged to have fatally shot Beauchamp in the head earlier in the morning while she was in bed with Parra-Peralta — at the time an active-duty airman at Travis Air Force Base — in a Cascade Lane home in Fairfield.
Once at her grandmother’s house, Parra-Peralta, with whom she had a previous relationship before the shooting, spoke with her brother, Marco Antonio Quintanilla, 30, also of Pittsburg, while seated in Parra-Peralta’s Cadillac CTS. Marco Quintanilla, Parra-Peralta said, told him he would be charged with the murder.
Marco Quintanilla, a previously convicted felon for attempted murder also is on trial in the case and faces an accessory-after-the-fact charge.
As Parra-Peralta spoke, Jessica Quintanilla, dressed in a black sweater over and black top over black pants and seated next to her attorney, William Alan Welch of San Francisco, showed no outward emotion as she looked at him and Shapiro. Marco Quintanilla, clad in white shirt and black tie, his hair pulled into a bun, appeared to be taking notes as he sat next to his lawyer, San Francisco-based attorney Laurie D. Savill.
During the afternoon session, Parra-Peralta testified that Fairfield officers arrived at the home later on a missing person’s report but left. Afterward, he and his roommate traveled to Vallejo to get rid of the mattress, among other things, returned to Travis AFB and he drove to Jessica Quintanilla’s Pittsburg apartment.
Jessica Quintanilla is being held without bail on first-degree murder charges in the Claybank Detention Facility in Fairfield. Marco Quintanilla is out of custody, having made bail on the accessory charge. He also is charged with violating his parole.
If convicted, Jessica Quintanilla faces 25 years to life in prison and perhaps more time for the use of a firearm. And, if convicted of a felony, Marco Quintanilla could face up to three years in prison, depending on the circumstances of the case, and perhaps more time for being a previously convicted felon.
The trial resumes at 9 a.m. Monday in Department 11 in the Justice Center in Fairfield.
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