Marvin Palencia testified at trial Monday that when he learned explicit sexual details of the relationship between his wife and Jacobo Vasquez from a coworker, he contemplated suicide. His feelings, he said, were “the worst ever, really bad.” And later, when he shot and killed Vazquez, Palencia said, he acted out of panic.
Palencia, 35, is charged with premeditated first-degree murder while armed, evidence tampering and related weapons offenses in connection with the shooting death of 36-year-old Jacobo Vasquez, whose body was found in a cardboard box wrapped with duct tape on the side of westbound I-70 in Maryland November 16, 2010, five days after he went missing.
Prosecutors allege Palencia shot Vazquez twice in the laundry room of a building in the 100 block of Constitution Avenue Northwest, a building where they both worked, after learning that his wife and Vazquez were having an affair.
Palencia testified Monday that news of that affair almost pushed him over the edge.
“I felt my life was no longer worth anything and I had contemplated ending it,” Palencia said through an interpreter.
One night, after learning the details of the relationship between his wife and Vazquez, Palencia stood “very close” to the edge of his terrace and pictured himself “closing my eyes, spreading my arms and letting everything go,” he told the court.
A few days later, Palencia decided to have some drinks at a restaurant on University Avenue. “I thought I might be able to forget my troubles if I drank,” he testified. When he went outside that night to smoke a cigarette, a man approached him about purchasing a gun.
“I thought I could use it on myself,” Palencia told the court. “I had intentions of using it against myself.”
Palencia testified that Vazquez, though, became the aggressor after a verbal confrontation outside Vazquez’s home on November 4.
Palencia said that Vazquez threatened him after he and his wife together confronted Vazquez about exaggerated details of the affair. A few days later, at their workplace, Vazquez opened his jacket, showed Palencia a knife and said that he better not get close “because it’s the last face you’ll see,” Palencia testified.
Palencia said that on the evening of November 11 2010, he was simply visiting the workplace with no intention of shooting Vasquez. As Palencia sat in his van that night, with his recently purchased gun and drinking alcohol, he saw Vasquez enter a storage room in the parking garage. So Palencia exited his van with the gun and followed him, he said.
“I made the bad decision,” Palencia said. “I thought I’d go down to the room and show him the weapon and maybe scare him. I wanted to show him I wouldn’t be intimidated by him.”
Palencia said that when he entered the storage room, Vasquez was kneeling near a cart, assembling tools for his shift. After seeing Palencia, Vasquez immediately retrieved a folding knife from inside his shoe and walked towards him, yelling, “What the f— are you [doing], when I told you not to be anywhere near me,” Palencia testified.
Palencia said that he told Vasquez to stay away, but felt “panic-stricken” when he continued to advance.
“It was a matter of seconds. I just shot and shot,” Palencia told the court.
He then packaged Vasquez’s body into a cardboard box, Palencia said.
The trial is scheduled to resume in Judge John Ramsey Johnson’s courtroom Tuesday morning.
