Closing arguments underway in La Quinta artist killing trial

A La Quinta artist was killed by “greedy men,” one ofwhom shot him in the back “like a coward,” a prosecutor told jurors today.

The prosecutors comments came in closing arguments in the retrial of twomen accused in the Oct. 25, 1997, murder-for-hire of Bernardo Gouthier. JesseDean Nava and Jerry Eugene Reynolds are both representing themselves.

The defendants were convicted in February 2007 of murder, with a specialcircumstance allegation of murder for financial gain, but their convictionswere overturned in 2008 by an appeals court panel due to a jury selectionerror.

A third man, Michael Marohn, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter inDecember 2006 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Another co-defendant,Mario Gonzalez, was tried separately, convicted of murder and sentenced to lifein prison without the possibility of parole.

Gouthier, 43, was shot to death at his La Quinta home in an area knownas Sculpture Park, where he displayed his work and that of other artists. Nava,32, and Reynolds, 57, were arrested in 2001 in connection with the murder.

Pattison Hayton, the estranged husband of Gouthier’s live-in girlfriend,Kathy Barr, allegedly hired Reynolds to have Gouthier killed. Hayton andBarr, who had a young son, were involved in a contentious divorce, DeputyDistrict Attorney Scot Clark said.

“We’re here because greedy men killed Bernardo Gouthier at the behestof an angry, jealous, controlling, immature, rich man,” Clark said in hisclosing argument. “We’re here because Jesse Nava went into that home with hisconfederates . . . and shot Bernardo Gouthier four times. We’re here becauseJerry Reynolds is the middle man at the behest of that rich man, settingeverything in motion.”

Clark alleged that Hayton used Reynolds, his “go-to guy” in othermatters, to “exploit … young men to get the deed done.”

He said Nava “blames Mr. Gouthier for his own death” and shot him inthe back “like a coward.”

Nava, Marohn and Gonzalez went to Gouthier’s home in a truck supplied byHayton while Barr was out having dinner with friends, and entered thevictim’s home as he was getting ready to leave to meet Barr. Gouthier, who wasforced to his knees in his bedroom, tried to get away and was shot four timesby Nava, once in the neck and three times in the back, Clark alleged.

Reynolds, who worked on the air conditioning at Hayton’s home in PGAWest in La Quinta, was at Hayton’s house the days before and after the killing,and he received a large stock transfer and cashier’s checks totaling roughly$55,000 from Hayton, the prosecutor alleged.

In a recorded phone conversation, Reynolds told his father-in-law he waswanted for murder and said he was a “go-between,” Clark said.

Nava and Marohn told police in corroborating interviews that they werepaid to go to Gouthier’s home to kill him, according to the prosecutor.

Reynolds told jurors that Nava and Marohn went to the wrong house topick up stolen art, which would be delivered to Hayton.

“You will hear this was a tragic mistake,” said Reynolds, who allegedthat Nava and Marohn were high on drugs at the time.

He said Nava shot Gouthier “out of fear,” and that there was no murder-for-hire plot.

Nava testified that he, Marohn and Gonzalez went to Gouthier’s house tocollect money or property to pay a debt. Gouthier told the men to leave, andMarohn stepped forward with a Taser. Nava moved to take it from him, andGouthier jumped up and started yelling, Nava said.

“He kind of went down in a football stance to kind of hit me with hisshoulder maybe, and that’s when Michael yelled, `Shoot him, shoot him,”‘ Navasaid. “I closed my eyes and just squeezed the gun.”

He said he later told his daughter’s mother and a friend that he’d shota man, and Marohn’s father later told him, “It’s bigger than you think itis.”

“He said, `The guy going down for this is Jerry (Reynolds). He used youguys, you guys didn’t know better,”‘ Nava said.

He said the night of the killing, “there was no previous knowledge ofPat (Hayton), no previous knowledge of Kathy (Barr).”

Hayton died of a heart attack in 2003 in London, before authoritiescould arrest him, Clark said. Nava and Reynolds are being held without bail.