SAN DIEGO —
A San Diego jury returned a guilty verdict Thursday for one defendant in a trial involving two men accused of murdering a Chula Vista music producer back in 2017, then trying to cover it up. Timothy John Cook was found guilty of second degree murder in the stabbing death of his roommate. The same jury deadlocked 10-2 on an accessory after the fact charge against Cook's co-defendant, Derrick Spurgeon.
On Oct. 12, 2017, a diver discovered a white drum barrel weighed down by an anchor in the San Diego Bay. Inside was 28-year-old Omar Medina’s decomposing body. Police say Medina had been stabbed to death in Chula Vista 12 days earlier on Sept. 30. Medical examiners said Medina had been stabbed more than 60 times in the chest, back, neck and head.
Editor's note: Cook is seated at the far end of the table in the video below.
Medina's family never heard from him after Sept. 30, and filed a missing person's report soon afterward with Chula Vista police. His unlocked car was found about a week later on Oaklawn Avenue, not far from the home he shared with Cook. Numerous belongings, including his computer and guitar, were inside the vehicle.
After investigating for two months, police arrested 54-year-old Cook of Chula Vista and 40-year-old Spurgeon of El Cajon in Dec. 2017.
Last month, the jury began deliberating the case.
The prosecution argued that Cook murdered Medina, then Spurgeon drove the boat used to dump the body. The defense said that the evidence against their clients was entirely circumstantial.
Deputy District Attorney Cherie Somerville said in her opening statement on Nov. 5 that Medina and Cook both worked at a scaffolding business for Cook's younger brother and were living together in Chula Vista.
Cook complained that Medina was a sloppy roommate, so he kicked Medina out of the house, according to the prosecutor. Somerville also said that Medina had recently received a $84,000 settlement in a lawsuit.
Defense attorney Kara Oien countered in her opening statement that there was no hard physical evidence tying Cook to Medina's death because investigators never found a murder weapon nor witnesses to the murder. Oien also said being annoyed about a sloppy roommate is far from a serious motive to kill.
"There is no motive," Oien said. "The D.A. wants you to think there's a motive because there's no evidence of killing."
Somerville argued Cook knew taking the money so soon after the murder would "set off red flags and alarm bells," and thus, didn't access the accounts as a cautionary move.
The prosecutor said that from Oct. 1 through Oct. 7, Cook told his brother he was out of town in Northern California, though he never actually left San Diego County. Instead, Somerville said Cook spent that week cleaning up the crime scene by tearing out portions of the detached room, as well as areas of Cook's kitchen.
Oien argued Cook was merely making routine repairs to the home as part of a deal with the landlord for reduced rent.
On Oct. 11, prosecutors said Cook asked Spurgeon to assist him in towing the boat from Spurgeon's home in El Cajon to San Diego Bay, where Spurgeon also helped Cook weigh down the barrel with a makeshift anchor made of wire and cinderblocks. The drum was located by another boater less than 18 hours after it was dumped.
Spurgeon's attorney, Roland Haddad, argued throughout the trial that there was no way to prove that Spurgeon knew he was aiding a murderer by helping Cook dump the barrel.
Haddad cited how readily Cook lied to his own brother about leaving town, and stated that there was no way to know Cook also didn't lie to his client about why they were dumping the barrel.
A Dec. 19 status conference was scheduled to decide how to proceed with Spurgeon's case.
Cook is slated to be sentenced Jan. 6.