Ernesto Hernandez Avalos, 27, of Santa Ana (OC District Attorney)

SANTA ANA — A 27-year-old day laborer grew so angry with his boss because he was told he was working too slowly that he bludgeoned his employer to death with a shovel, then a pickax, a prosecutor told jurors Monday.

But Ernesto Hernandez Avalos’ defense attorney, Arthur Phan, said the Santa Ana man was defending himself because he thought his boss, Woo Sung Park, was going to attack him.

Avalos is charged with murder and faces a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon.

Park, who was 45 and lived in Rancho Santa Margarita with his wife and two children at the time, owned a landscaping business and hired Avalos for a few other jobs before the fatal encounter.

On Jan. 29, 2007, Park hired Avalos and Liberio Pantoja to do some landscaping in the backyard of a home at 27 Woods Trail in Irvine, Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevey said.

Avalos took methamphetamine about 7 a.m. before he went to work that day, Phan and McGreevey said. Avalos told police he had been using the drug once or twice a week for about a year, McGreevey said.

Before lunch, there were no problems, McGreevey said. But about 11:45 a.m., after a 30-minute break, Pantoja returned to the backyard and saw Park face-down with blood on his back and Avalos holding a shovel “like a baseball bat,” McGreevey said.

Park “repeatedly told (Avalos) he wasn’t working fast enough and that he didn’t smell good,” Phan said.

“What (McGreevey) didn’t tell you is this is a case of self-defense,” Phan told the jury.

Phan said Park had a tool in his hand that Avalos thought his boss would use to attack him, Phan said. He would not specify what that tool was.

“Mr. Avalos never had any intention of killing Mr. Park,” Phan said. “I’m confident after you hear all of the evidence that you’ll believe Mr. Avalos was acting in self-defense.”

Justin Hauser, a next-door neighbor, who saw Park get hit in the head five or six times with the shovel, called police, McGreevey said.

John Sanders, at the time an Irvine patrol officer but now a detective, was the first law enforcement officer on the scene, he testified. Sanders repeatedly told Avalos to drop the shovel, which he eventually did.

“It seemed like an eternity, but it was more like 15 seconds” before Avalos dropped the shovel, Sanders testified.

Sanders demonstrated for the jury how Avalos then picked up a pickax and slammed it into the back of Park’s head.

Avalos threw a dirt clog at Sanders before another Irvine officer shot Avalos with a rubber bullet, Sanders testified.

When officers tried to handcuff Avalos, there was a “pretty violent struggle,” and the officers used a Taser three times to subdue Avalos, Sanders testified.

Park had no defensive wounds, McGreevey said. His face was bruised from the impact of having the shovel and pickax slammed into the back of his head, McGreevey said.

When investigators questioned Avalos that night he told them he had used methamphetamine, and a blood test confirmed that, McGreevey said.

“Methamphetamine was in his system, but in the defendant’s own words methamphetamine had nothing to do with it,” McGreevey said. “He knew what he did was wrong.”

Tags: Ernesto Hernandez Avalos, Irvine, murder, O.C. District Attorney, Santa Ana, Woo Sung Park

This entry was posted on Monday, March 22nd, 2010 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Courts-Crime, Homicide-Blog . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.