Slaying Suspect Changes Story

After learning investigators were searching for DNA evidence, a Fillmore High School football player charged with the strangulation and attempted rape of a 19-year-old former cheerleader changed his story about what happened in the hours before her death on New Year’s Day last year.

Samuel Puebla, then 17, initially told investigators that he had no romantic involvement with Valerie Zavala after the two left a party together early on Jan. 1, 2003, according to recently unsealed Ventura County Grand Jury transcripts. But when pressed by Sheriff’s Det. Jose Rivera, Puebla acknowledged that he had tried to kiss Zavala, who spurned his advances.

“He told Det. Rivera that he felt stupid after that and gave up any further attempt to strike up a romantic exchange with Valerie Zavala,” according to the 329-page transcript that disclosed details and key evidence in the high-profile case.

But after Rivera told Puebla that forensic tests would be conducted on Zavala’s body to uncover any physical evidence linking the two, Puebla changed his story again and said that the two had sex, according to the transcripts. However, no evidence of intercourse was found.

Detectives found Zavala’s blood on a jacket that Puebla had worn the night of the party, according to the transcripts. It was the same jacket that Puebla wore during an interview with Rivera on Jan. 7, 2003.

Rivera recognized Puebla’s jacket from a videotape taken at the party and confiscated it, according to the transcripts. DNA tests showed that bloodstains on the front of the jacket matched Zavala’s blood.

“If he had consensual intercourse with her, there’s no reason for her blood to be on his jacket,” Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Maeve Fox told grand jurors.

On New Year’s Day 2003, Zavala’s half-naked body was found inside a drainage pipe in a citrus field between Fillmore and Santa Paula.

An autopsy concluded that she had been strangled and beaten severely.

In June, Puebla was arrested and charged with murder and attempted rape. He has pleaded not guilty and remains jailed without bail.

Puebla’s conflicting stories and his blood-stained jacket are expected to be key evidence used by prosecutors in a case that stunned residents of Fillmore, a town of 14,000.

A status hearing on evidence to be presented at trial is scheduled next Monday.

“This is a very strong case, and I’m very confident that we’ll get a conviction in this case,” Fox said Monday. “Everything points right to him.”

But defense attorney Steve Meister disagreed, saying that the prosecution’s case is largely circumstantial.

“They don’t have any eyewitnesses, and the witnesses they do have -- all of them have credibility problems,” he said. “I know what their theories are, but I don’t know if they have the evidence to prove it.”

Even the DNA evidence is questionable, Meister said. “We have our own experts looking at it. Everything from the way it was collected, the integrity of the sample to the accuracy of the analysis and the legitimacy of the conclusion.”

Zavala, a San Jose State sophomore studying education, had come to Fillmore during the Christmas break to visit her family and attend an annual New Year’s Eve party.

About 9:30 p.m., the Fillmore High graduate rode with her cousin, Robert Padilla, and his friend, Anna Hinojosa, to the party.

A video filmed at the party by Zavala’ s friend, Augustus Banola, shows Zavala, Puebla and other guests gathered in the kitchen and counting down the seconds to midnight. Puebla can be seen patting the back of another friend in celebration, according to the grand jury transcripts.

Around 2 a.m. New Year’s Day, Zavala offered to drive both Hinojosa and Puebla home. After dropping off Hinojosa at Padilla’s house, Zavala, according to testimony, planned to deliver Puebla home and then visit a former boyfriend in Fillmore.

She never made it, according to Isaac Flores, Zavala’s high school sweetheart.

After her body was discovered, detectives learned that Puebla was one of the last people to see her alive, according to the court transcripts.

About 4:30 p.m. New Year’s Day, Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. William Ayub questioned Puebla at the family’s Fillmore home. During a 15-minute interview, Puebla said Zavala had dropped him off near his home and then drove off.

“He told me he wished Valerie a happy new year and that they reached across and embraced each other ... “ according to Ayub’s testimony.

Two days later, in a second interview with Ayub, Puebla reiterated the same version of events, according to the court transcripts.

On Jan. 7, detectives found Zavala’s underwear, stud earring and other personal items behind a church on C Street in Fillmore. The church is a block from Puebla’s home, according to testimony.

That night, Det. Rivera went to Puebla’s house with a search warrant. As deputies combed the home for evidence, the detective interviewed Puebla for more than two hours and took his jacket.

In her closing arguments to grand jurors, Fox stated that there is also evidence that indicates Zavala had tried to fight off her assailant.

“This woman suffered injuries trying to stay alive and didn’t just go out in a peaceful way,” Fox said. “This girl died fighting for her life.”

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Times staff writer Gregory W. Griggs contributed to this report.