Attacker threatened to cook dead man, feed him to his sister

Prosecutors are preserving the testimony of Barbara Owens, a 57-year-old woman who watched her brother's brutal slaying in their east Las Vegas Valley home, because she may not live through the year.

Owens told a judge Friday that Jennifer Mustachia, the woman accused of killing Owen's brother, said that after he died she would cook him and force Owens to eat him.

But when the two women first met, they both were vulnerable. It was late 2013, and they were sharing a hospital room.

Three years earlier, Owens had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the neurodegenerative disease known as ALS.

Sometimes called Lou Gehrig's disease, ALS left Owens wheelchair-bound. She can no longer move her legs, and her arms have limited motion.

Doctors have said she would not survive through the end of this year, according to prosecutor Jacqueline Bluth.

For now, though, she's alive. And that's why she's testified at a pre-trial hearing.

Before they left the hospital, Mustachia and Owens exchanged phone numbers.

After that, Mustachia on a few occasions visited the home where Owens lived with her brother in the 6800 block of Fallona Avenue, near the intersection of North Hollywood and Lake Mead boulevards.

But after each visit, Owens noticed things missing: painkillers, a cellphone, cable boxes. One day, Mustachia called asking for pills. Owens' brother and caretaker, Edward Michael Turner, who also had disabilities, told Mustachia never to come around again.

About 10 p.m. on March 23, there was a knock on their door, Owens testified Friday. Turner answered, and Owens, after hearing a quarrel, rolled out from her bedroom, encountering Mustachia in the hall.

"Come out here and see these guys kill your brother," Mustachia said, according to Owens' testimony.

Jamie Zuniga, also charged in the March 23 fatal beating, hit the 47-year-old Turner with his hands and feet and anything he could find — a hairbrush, a lamp, an ashtray and a crowbar, according to testimony. A third man, who has been interviewed by Metro, drove Zuniga and Mustachia to the home but did not go inside, police have said.

Zuniga slammed Turner's head on the wooden ramp at the entrance of the home, Owens said. Mustachia grabbed a baseball bat and slugged Owens as she cried for help.

Turner was dragged back inside the home, and Mustachia closed the curtains and took rope and duct tape from the garage. Wielding the bat and hurling knives, she forced Owens into her bedroom.

As Zuniga tied up a moaning Turner, Mustachia ransacked the bedroom, stuffing cash in her pockets and slipping rings on her fingers, Owens said.

When he finished beating Turner, Zuniga licked blood from his hands, Owens said.

Police have said Zuniga said, "I love doing this s---."

Before he left, Zuniga hauled out a TV set, Owens said. He got in the waiting vehicle and took off.

Owens locked the door.

But Mustachia stuck around for several hours, Owens said. The intruder beat Owens with the bat as her brother lay dying on the living room floor.

"I could hear him choking on his own blood," Owens said.

Meanwhile, Mustachia grilled hamburger meat and ate chocolate cupcakes, removed her bloody jeans and T-shirt and changed into Owens' bra and shorts.

With the attacker distracted, Owens surreptitiously dialed 911 from a cellphone, and acted as if she was trying to calm her brother.

But Mustachia found the phone.

"'Now your brother's going to die for sure,' " Mustachia said, according to Owens' testimony. "'You're going to die. How do you want to die? Do you want to overdose? Do you want me to stab you? Choke you?'

"She said she had already killed over a thousand people, and it would be no problem to take out me and my brother."

Mustachia wanted to tie Owens up, she testified, but "I told her she didn't need to tie me up because I was already paralyzed."

So Mustachia yanked wires from Owens' wheelchair and slashed the tires, Owens said. Eventually, Mustachia grew tired while dumping valuables into a box and fell asleep on Owens' bed about 2:15 a.m.

"I made some noise to see if she would wake up," Owens said. "And then I left" in her damaged wheelchair.

She called police from a nearby gas station.

Officers found Turner dead in the doorway, and Mustachia awoke to her arrest.

Zuniga, 29, and Mustachia, 33, face charges of murder, robbery and burglary with a deadly weapon, attempted murder with a deadly weapon, battery, first-degree kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder. A judge is scheduled to decide next month whether prosecutors have enough evidence to take the case to trial.

Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker.