Opinion ID: 1254168
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Diane Edwards.

Text: Garcia's mother, Diane Edwards, was terminally ill and unable to testify at the trial. Her preliminary hearing testimony was read to the jury. [3] That testimony was consistent with Garcia's testimony regarding many of appellant's activities in Santa Cruz and Las Vegas, his threats, domination and abuse of Garcia, his possession of large amounts of money and drugs, and his claims that he was affiliated with the Mafia. On the night of December 29, Edwards went to appellant's room at the Dream Inn. Garcia had borrowed Edwards's Bronco that day. Garcia called her at 7:00 or 8:00 at night, said she was there with appellant and another woman, and asked Edwards to bring her some shoes. When Edwards arrived at the Dream Inn that night, Weller and Garcia were there. Both had wet hair, but their clothing was not wet. Appellant asked Garcia, Does your mother know anything? When Garcia indicated that she had not spoken to her mother, Edwards was asked to wait in the bathroom. She remained there for about 30 minutes. At one point Edwards saw Weller putting large sums of cash away. She saw appellant wiping money with alcohol or water. She also saw a sandwich bag half full of what appellant said was cocaine. At another time during the evening appellant took Garcia into the bathroom. After some time he came out and told Edwards to straighten Garcia up. Edwards found Garcia in the bathroom with welts on her face, crying. Garcia said she was scared and asked Edwards to help her. Appellant later said that Garcia had problems and he had to keep her in line. Finally he gave Garcia and Weller money and directed them to go and have a good time and to stay somewhere else. Edwards spent the night with appellant. When Garcia and Weller returned the next morning, appellant took Garcia to the bathroom for a disciplinary talk. Later, in appellant's absence, Garcia said she was scared but could not talk about the problem without involving the rest of the family as there was no safe place to talk because everything was bugged. When they checked out of the Dream Inn the following morning, Edwards spent about an hour with Garcia at Garcia's home. Garcia again told Edwards that she was afraid but could not talk to Edwards as someone was listening to everything she said. Edwards accompanied Garcia to Las Vegas because she did not want Garcia to go alone and Garcia asked her to go with her. Edwards saw appellant using cocaine frequently, and saw him physically abusing Garcia, including threatening her life. Appellant hit Garcia with his fist and his hand. She saw that Garcia's nose was bleeding and an eye was swollen shut. She heard appellant tell Garcia that he would see that her brother was hung from a meat hook and cut up in small pieces if Garcia did not behave. When Edwards told Garcia (in the telephone call to Minnesota) that a skull had been found on the University of California at Santa Cruz campus and appellant took the phone from Garcia, appellant had expressed an unusual interest in the subject, saying, What the hell's somebody doing up there hunting mushrooms in the rain? At appellant's request, Edwards collected newspapers with stories about the skulls and gave them to appellant on his return to California. During the ride home to Soquel with Garcia, Garcia told Edwards that if she talked her family would be killed. While Edwards was hospitalized, appellant visited and threatened Edwards's life.