Edward Preciado-Nuno is shown during a break in his murder trial at the Regional Justice Center Thursday, December 16, 2010. Preciado-Nuno, a retired FBI special agent, is accused of killing his son’s girlfriend Kimberly Long. Preciado-Nuno says he was attacked by the girlfriend and killed her in self-defense.
Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010 | 4:54 p.m.
Sun Archives
- Ex-FBI special agent to testify in his own murder trial (12-16-2010)
- Blood stain with hammer imprint shown in ex-FBI agent's murder trial (12-13-2010)
- Pathologist testifies in trial for ex-FBI agent accused in hammer killing (12-8-2010)
- Trial begins for ex-FBI agent accused of killing son's girlfriend with hammer (11-14-2010)
- Retired FBI agent arrested in woman’s hammer death (11-14-2008)
A jury found retired San Diego FBI special agent Edward Preciado-Nuno guilty of voluntary manslaughter with use of a deadly weapon Tuesday afternoon in Clark County District Court.
Preciado-Nuno, 63, who was out on bail, was taken into custody and will be sentenced on Feb. 23. The jury deliberated from 9 a.m. until about 2:30 p.m., Chief Deputy District Attorney Giancarlo Pesci said.
“We’re grateful he’s in custody,” Pesci said.
Preciado-Nuno was arrested in November 2008 on a charge of murder with a deadly weapon. Police found Preciado-Nuno’s son’s girlfriend Kimberly Long dead in his son’s garage with several blunt force trauma wounds.
The trial began Nov. 14 of this year and the main issue contested was whether the attack was self-defense or murder.
In his opening statements, Pesci said the evidence would show that Long was trying to defend herself. He showed the jury an autopsy photo of Long's head. It showed 13 places where Preciado-Nuno had hit her with a claw hammer.
Pesci also showed the jurors photos of cuts and bruises from the hammer marks on her arm, plus an X-ray that showed her arm had been broken. There were 34 areas of injury on her body, he said.
Thomas Pitaro, defense attorney for Preciado-Nuno, said he was attacked first by Long and he was trying to diffuse a “toxic” relationship between his son and Long.
According to a police report, Long and Jeffrey Preciado-Nuno had been a couple for about five years and had an infant son together. But they had had a somewhat turbulent relationship that that in the past resulted in arrests for both of them, police said.
Jeffrey Preciado-Nuno had called his father, a retired FBI agent and longtime law enforcement officer, asking for help and advice on how to break off the relationship and evict Long from the home.
The fight broke out when the father had sent his son away from the home, so the father could explain to Long that they were gathering documentation about a recent violent episode where she had punched him in the face and broken his nose.
A document containing a written voluntary police statement that the son planned to file with police about that incident was found on the floor of the garage next to Long's body and the pool of blood, police said.
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