Font ResizeMARTINEZ — In a text message sent to her roommate hours before she was killed in 2007, Faith Blevins wrote that she was being careful not to cough, turn on the TV — make any sound that would indicate she was home in her bedroom in case her ex-boyfriend came looking for her.
The 29-year-old single mother was spooked over rumors about Jaime "Ghetto" Batiste. The man seemed desperate to reconnect with her since she ended their nine-month relationship several weeks earlier and had threatened to shoot up her Antioch home with her 8-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son inside. She had sent the children to sleep elsewhere for the night, prosecutor Jason Peck said Thursday during opening statements at Batiste's murder trial.
Blevins, 29, likely was sleeping about 2 a.m. Oct. 16, 2007, when Batiste kicked down a door of her West Eighth Street house and shot her in the head as she lay in bed, Peck said. His main motivation was a broken heart.
"He decided he's going to end his pain by making someone else hurt more," Peck said. "He shot her six times, basically executed her."
Police matched a unique footprint on the broken door to a pair of Batiste's Nikes and found the revolver used in the shooting at his residence. Jose "Freddie" Hernandez, to whom Batiste frequently sold marijuana, will testify that Batiste, 27, of Antioch, traded him drugs for rides to and from Blevins' house about the time of the shooting.
The prosecution's
It was Hernandez, not Batiste, who had gunpowder residue on his hands the day of the shooting. Hernandez gave numerous versions to police of what happened that night and, by the end of the trial, will be proven a liar, Varnell said.
"This is their star witness, a gang member who is high, who has all this evidence against him and who has every incentive to lie," Varnell said.
The trial continues Monday in Judge John Laettner's courtroom in Martinez.
