Trial begins in Modesto motel murder-arson case

Authorities found Valerie Rose Villegas’ body crumpled on a bathroom floor of a burning Modesto motel room on South Ninth Street. She died from smoke inhalation but only because she was knocked unconscious and left to die, a prosecutor told a jury Thursday.

Deputy District Attorney Dina Petrushenko said Jerome Smith pistol-whipped Villegas and left her inside the burning motel room last year. She told the jurors they will see footage from a motel security camera that shows Villegas entering the room with Smith. “And that was the last time she was seen alive,” the prosecutor said.

Chief Deputy Public Defender Sonny Sandhu, Smith’s attorney, said there’s no doubt that Villegas died because of the fire, but he asked the jurors to keep an open mind until they hear testimony from all the witnesses. Smith, 37, is charged with murder, arson of an inhabited building and being a felon in possession of a gun.

The defense attorney told the jury the prosecution can’t prove the fire was intentionally started by anyone. Sandhu said the evidence will show others, not his client, had the motive and the opportunity to start the fire.

Smith’s second trial started Thursday morning with opening statements from the attorneys. His first trial ended in April with a hung jury, forcing Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Marie Silveira to declare a mistrial.

The deadly fire occurred in the early morning of Nov. 14, 2015, at the Arrow Inn in the 500 block of South Ninth Street, an industrial commercial strip that includes low-rent motels. Fire officials at the time said the blaze destroyed the room where Villegas was found, and flames and smoke damaged 10 to 12 other rooms at the motel.

The prosecutor said investigators determined the fire started on a bed in Room 108 of the Arrow Inn. Villegas and Smith had checked into the room. When police later questioned Smith, the defendant repeatedly denied knowing Villegas or that anyone else was in his room, Petrushenko said.

She told the jury that a county forensic pathologist will testify that Villegas had three lacerations on the back of her head caused by blunt force trauma, which contributed to her death. Petrushenko said Villegas died from breathing in smoke and soot from the fire, a blaze she couldn’t escape because she was unconscious.

The motel camera footage, the prosecutor said, will show Smith step out of the motel room as smoke and flames poured out. Petrushenko said Smith then walked back into the motel room for 24 seconds, presumably to retrieve the gun he mistakenly left inside. Meanwhile, Villegas is on the bathroom floor dying, the prosecutor said.

Petrushenko told the jurors that Smith is never seen in the camera footage waving his arms or anything else to get help. She said the footage shows the first person who notices the fire arrive, but Smith walks past him and into a vehicle before leaving the motel.

This story was originally published November 3, 2016 at 6:23 PM with the headline "Trial begins in Modesto motel murder-arson case."