Defense cites lack of evidence in woman's slaying

Attorneys defending the Colorado Springs man accused of kidnapping and killing the mother of his infant son told jurors today that prosecutors have no evidence proving how and where Jaclyn Funderburg died.

Salvator Esquivel-Castillo, 36, is on trial in 4th Judicial District Court on charges of first-degree murder, felony murder and kidnapping in Funderburg's death in July 2007 He has pleaded not-guilty to all charges.

Deputy Public Defender Michele Newell in her opening statement attacked the prosecutors' case as "assumptions, speculation and theory made by friends, the police and the district attorney's office."

"No one really knows how, where or when Jaclyn Funderburg died," Newell told jurors.

While the state's case is largely circumstantial, Deputy District Attorney Stephanie Cusick noted some key evidence that will be hard to refute.

"This case is about desperate acts by a desperate man," Cusick said.

Funderburg was reported missing July 11, 2007. Esquivel-Castillo was arrested the next day on assault charges stemming from an incident several months earlier in which he allegedly hit her and broke her jaw.

Funderburg's body was found by El Paso County Search and Rescue workers 11 days later at the base of a cliff southeast of Marksheffel Road and Space Village Avenue - near a mobile home park where Esquivel-Castillo lived off-and-on with another woman.

Cusick told jurors witnesses told police they saw Funderburg being pulled into Esquivel-Castillo's Cadillac the evening before she went missing.

Funderburg's blood was found in the car's trunk - which investigators found smelling of bleach and freshly vacuumed at the mobile home park July 12. There was pieces of plants under the car, and in a washing machine in the trailer with Esquivel-Castillo's clothes, that matched plants at the site where Funderburg's body was found.

Esquivel-Castillo had called his boss at Ruby's Diner and said he had to quit because he had to go to Mexico for a sick family member, Cusick said. Police found a duffel bag packed with his clothes in the Marksheffel Road trailer.

Funderburg's father, Jerry Funderburg, was the state's first witness.

He talked about driving from Ohio after hearing his daughter was missing and leading search teams of friends and family "from sun-up to sun down" for days looking for her.

Funderburg got emotional when testifying about how his daughter's body was found and how he knew it was her because her jaw had been wired shut from the May assault.

Esquivel-Castillo is an illegal immigrant and he feared he would get deported if convicted of the assault on Funderburg, hospital officials previously testified Funderburg told them when she was treated in May.

Esquivel-Castillo, who is being held without bond at the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center, could be sentenced to life in prison without parole if convicted of murder.

The trial, which began Monday with jury selection, is expected to last three weeks.