Lawyer: Yes, he beat her

Victor Manuel Garcia deliberately beat a Costa Mesa teenage girl to death in a local park in 2001, then dragged her body off the main path so no one would discover her, prosecutors told a jury during opening statements in Garcia’s murder trial Monday.

During his opening arguments, Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy outlined the details surrounding the killing of 16-year-old Ceceline Godsoe in Costa Mesa’s Fairview Park on Sept. 20, 2001.

The circumstances that brought Godsoe and Garcia together that night started hours earlier, when Godsoe, called “Cecel,” went to a quiet get-together with friends in Costa Mesa. She was like many teenage girls, Murphy told jurors, and experimented with alcohol, marijuana and other drugs.

That night, she and friend Evan Christiansen met with friends, smoked some pot and had a couple of beers, then left, Murphy said. Christiansen testified he and Godsoe picked up more alcohol — two 40-ounce bottles of Mickey’s malt liquor — and headed to Fairview Park. It was just becoming dark when they arrived, Christiansen told jurors.

Garcia, his cousin and another friend were already at Fairview Park for their own party. Garcia, then 17 years old, was celebrating the birth of his first child with his 18-year-old wife. Neither group knew each other.

But Godsoe didn’t hesitate to make friends, witnesses testified. When she and Christiansen walked into the park from her home off Pacific Avenue, she immediately whistled to the three strangers they saw up ahead.

Garcia introduced himself as “Pumpkin Head,” a moniker his friends gave him because he had a large head, and the others also used nicknames, Murphy told jurors.

Deputy Alternate Defender Frank Davis, representing Garcia, didn’t argue any of these points, nor did he plan to, he told jurors during his opening statements. Nor would he dispute that the group all seemed to be getting along, drinking beer, talking about school and common interests, or that Garcia and Godsoe seemed to hit it off.

Both attorneys told jurors that Godsoe and Garcia were seen walking off together. It was the last time she was seen alive.

Prosecutors claim that after they walked away, for unknown reasons, Garcia savagely beat the 125-pound Godsoe to death. Garcia weighed about 195 pounds at the time.

Christiansen discovered Godsoe’s body near the western edge of Fairview Park near a cliff. Her body was bruised, with blood coming from her nose and mouth, and red marks around her neck and on the right side of her body. A Costa Mesa police crime scene investigator testified it looked like she had been dragged at least 20 to 25 feet to where she was found.

According to prosecutors, a review of the autopsy records a few weeks ago showed that Godsoe died of asphyxia. They concluded that the violent beating caused her neck and airway to swell so much it suffocated her, or that something was used to strangle her. Regardless, she was intentionally beaten to death, Murphy said.

Davis argues that the death was incidental. Yes, he acknowledged to jurors, Garcia violently beat Godsoe. But he argues that the original autopsy concluded that Godsoe’s broken jaw — leading to a cut tongue and lip — caused her to bleed into her throat and ultimately drown in her own blood.

That’s not murder, but something lesser, such as manslaughter, he said.

A coroner is expected to testify for the prosecution this morning.