Videotaped confession details girl's slaying:
Confession: Insult led to Randolph girl's killing:
"When I stabbed her in the mouth, she was still alive, so I stabbed her in the neck,"
Those are the words of Jonathan Zarate in his videotaped confession describing the 2005 murder of 16-year-old Jennifer Parks. In the tape he casually uttered those words while eating a Snickers bar.
The tape was played in court today to determine if the confession is admissible in the trial.
Zarate's attorney, Rich Mazawey, argued that his client uses PCP, has OCD, anger issues, and was hallucinating at the time of the interview and the murder. Are those supposed to be reasons not to throw his ass in a hole for the rest of his life?
The lead investigator, Lt. Jane Recktenwald of the Morris County Prosecutor's Office, testified that Zarate did not appear to be under the influence of any drugs at the time of the interview.
In the videotape Zarate went on to describe the murder of his 16-year-old neighbor...
The topic turned to his brother. She called him several names after she brought up an in cident in which his brother got in trouble. He got angry, punched her and sat overtop her, and didn't stop beating her in the face until she was barely able to communicate or move, Zarate said.
He kicked her body and clubbed her with a metal pole.
Zarate said he had stuffed a bandanna in her mouth to gag her.
"I went upstairs and grabbed a kitchen knife," he said, returned to her strewn on the floor and stabbed her in the right thigh. Then he stabbed her in the abdomen, then in the mouth and finally the neck.
If you've been following this story you know that Zarate dismembered Jennifer, hid her body in a trunk for 24 hours while he attended a family birthday party, then tried to dispose of her body in the Passaic River. Here's what happened when the police rolled up on him, his brother, and a buddy of theirs.
Close to 3 a.m. on July 31, 2005, a Secaucus police officer and sergeant traveling in separate vehicles to their headquarters after an unrelated investigation spotted the Zarate brothers and their teenage friend from Clifton in the act of trying to throw the chest over the Union Avenue Bridge in Rutherford into the Passaic River.
Secaucus Officer Robert Ulrich testified Monday that the chest was dropped, and the trio bolted to their SUV when they saw the police cars. Both Ulrich and his sergeant hopped out of their cars and drew their guns to prevent Zarate from driving away. Ulrich said Zarate, without being asked, blurted out an apology about dumping.
"It's just garbage. It's old food from my father's refrigerator," Ulrich said Zarate claimed as an explanation.
No word on when the judge will make a ruling. It would come as a great surprise to me if the tape was ruled inadmissible.
Nod of Doom to Keb.
