Hayward Man Accused of Murdering Castro Valley Woman Says There's a Reason Why He Committed the Crimes

A 20-year-old Hayward man accused of murder and arson for the strangulation death of a Castro Valley woman whose home was also set on fire admitted to jurors Tuesday that he committed the crimes he’s accused of. But Cody Nicosia, who is representing himself, said in his opening statement in his trial that there’s a reason for his involvement in the death of 58-year-old Barbara Latiolais on Oct. 17, 2012.

Dressed in dark gray pants and a light gray shirt, Nicosia said, “I’m not here to try to say I didn’t do any of these things. I did.” But he said, “I’m here to say why I did it. There’s a long difference.”

However, Nicosia didn’t explain that difference to jurors. After speaking for only about five minutes, including several long pauses during which he looked down at his notes, he turned toward Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jon Rolefson and said, “I can’t do this.”

Rolefson then indicated he will give Nicosia another chance to give his opening statement after prosecutor Adam Maldonado finishes presenting evidence in the case. Maldonado told jurors that Nicosia and co-defendant Christian Birdsall, 18, who will be prosecuted separately at a later date, committed the crime because they wanted to steal guns, jewelry, rare coins and cash from the home in the 2400 block of San Carlos Avenue in Castro Valley that Latiolais shared with her longtime boyfriend, retired San Francisco firefighter Michael Rice. Nicosia, who was 18 at the time of the incident, and Birdsall, who was only 16, planned their crime for Oct. 17, 2012, because they knew Rice was out of the state at that time, Maldonado said.

They were familiar with Latiolais’ house because Birdsall had done yard work for her, the prosecutor said. Birdsall attended Redwood High School in Castro Valley and was living in Hayward with Nicosia, who graduated from Castro Valley High School in June 2012, and Nicosia’s father, according to Alameda County sheriff’s officials who arrested the two suspects. Maldonado said the two teens arrived at the home around 8 a.m. and waited in a crawlspace for four or five hours before finally going inside and attacking her in her living room.

The prosecutor said Nicosia, with help from Birdsall, strangled Latiolais for about four or five minutes and then stopped because he thought she was dead. The two youths then started stealing guns and cash from another part of the house but went back to the living room after they heard noises there and discovered that she was still breathing, although she was motionless, according to Maldonado.

Nicosia decided to “finish the job” by finding a long rope, wrapping it around Latiolais’ neck four times and “choking the life out of her” with Birdsall’s help, Maldonado said. The teens then returned to ransack the house and eventually drove away in her Volvo and had a late lunch at a nearby Chipotle restaurant, he said.

“They had a leisurely lunch and joked and laughed with friends as if they hadn’t just killed a 58-year-old woman,” Maldonado said. But at about 10:30 p.m. that night, Nicosia and Birdall returned to Latiolais’ house because they realized that “their fingerprints were everywhere,” the prosecutor said.

Nicosia poured gasoline all over the house and then lit the house on fire “to help them conceal evidence of the crime,” Maldonado said. Nicosia and Birdsall were arrested several days after the incident. Nicosia told jurors in his short opening statement today that he was “an awkward kid in school” and “had problems talking to people.”

He said, “I loved Christian like my brother” and considered him to be a replacement for a brother who had died at a young age. Nicosia said Birdsall had been evicted from his home about two months before the incident and he offered to have him stay at his father’s home so he could have a place to live. In addition to murder and robbery, Nicosia and Birdsall are accused of the special circumstance of committing a murder during the course of a robbery.

They both face life in prison without the possibility of parole if they’re convicted. Nicosia had been represented by veteran defense attorney Richard Humphrey but fired him two weeks ago and said he wanted to represent himself. Humphrey is now acting as a legal adviser to Nicosia and is sitting in the back row of the courtroom during his trial.

By Bay City News

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