'If He Couldn't Have Her No One Could,' Says Prosecutor About Murder Suspect

By PAUL ANDERSON
City News Service

The proof that a 55-year-old man murdered his roommate because "if he couldn't have her no one could" lies in his online searches for information on the time it takes for a body to decompose and the location of the victim's grave in Modjeska Canyon, a prosecutor told jurors today.

Kwang Chol Joy, while using a public library computer, "did a virtual drive-by of where he dumped" 36-year-old Maribel Ramos' body in May 2013, Senior Deputy District Attorney Scott Simmons said.

"You've heard the old adage that the killer returns to the scene of the crime? He did," Simmons said.

Joy's online searches for "how long does it take a human body to decay" and a Google map location of where the body was dumped was the "break" investigators needed to solve the killing, Simmons argued.

Joy was going to the library while he was under suspicion, apparently not realizing investigators were tracking every online move he made in real time, the prosecuror said.

After Joy searched for the information on decomposition of a human body and the location of where Ramos was buried, he tried to erase his browsing history, apparently not realizing it was simple for investigators to forensically retrieve the information later, Simmons said.

The prosecutor argued Joy's Internet activity showed "consciousness of guilt," allowing for a conviction of first-degree murder.

While Ramos' friends and family and police were frantically searching for the missing Iraq War veteran, who disappeared just days before she was about to graduate with a bachelor's degree from Cal State Fullerton, Joy did interviews with television news reporters, Simmons said.

"The defendant made a conscious decision to lie to police and the media, claiming he had no idea what happened to Maribel over and over again," Simmons said. "And all the time he knows he buried her after murdering her... What kind of person does that? A cold-blooded person."

Joy began looking for a map page after he had read an article online about a search for the victim in the area where her body was dumped, Simmons said. Within 45 minutes of that online search, police found Ramos' remains, Simmons said.

Now Joy wants to "benefit from his evil ways" by saying there's no way to prove the cause of death since animals ravaged the body, Simmons told jurors.

"We just have to prove an unlawful killing at the hands of another," not the manner of death, the prosecutor said.

Joy's attorney, Adam Vining of the Orange County Public Defender's Office, offered up a variety of defenses at the onset of the trial, saying the victim could have died accidentally while bathing or during a conflict with the defendant or at the hands of another.

Vining -- who will begin his closing argument Wednesday -- also indicated in his opening statement that he might argue that the jury should consider voluntary manslaughter because the victim was killed "in the heat of passion" during an argument.

The defendant and victim had gotten into an "intense argument" the night of May 2, and friends and family reported her missing the following day when they were unable to contact her. Her body was found about two weeks later.

Joy had not been able to pay his share of the rent again in the two- bedroom apartment in Orange they shared. Less than two weeks before she disappeared, she called 911 about a frightening conversation she had with Joy.

When police asked Joy if he killed his roommate in self-defense, he denied hurting her, Simmons said. And there was "zero evidence" that Joy felt in fear of his life, which would justify the killing, the prosecutor said.

"The circumstantial evidence is overwhelming. It's first-degree murder," Simmons said. "If he couldn't have Maribel, he was going to make sure no one did."