2nd teen arraigned in connection with murder of 88-year-old South Bay woman Miss Flo
SANTA CLARA COUNTY, Calif. (BCN) - By Bay City News Service
A teenager who was arrested on Thursday in connection with the killing of an 88-year-old woman following a home invasion robbery last year was arraigned in a San Jose courtroom this afternoon.
Jennifer Hernandez Jimenez, 19, is charged with being an accessory to murder and conspiring to obstruct justice. She is expected to enter a plea on March 20 and is being held without bail.
Jimenez's 19-year-old boyfriend Zachary Omar Cuen has been charged with murder, attempted murder, first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and elder abuse in the Sept. 12 beating of Flovais Douglas, known to many as Miss Flo.
Each of Cuen's charges has a special allegation of personally afflicting great bodily injury.
Douglas was at home on North Cragmont Avenue in the Alum Rock area on Sept. 12 when Cuen allegedly broke in and threatened to kill her if she didn't follow his orders, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office.
Cuen allegedly demanded money from Douglas and then punched and kicked her to the ground when she said she had none.
Douglas suffered multiple bone fractures and internal hemorrhaging to her eyes and brain, sheriff's officials said.
Investigators said Cuen then left, but returned a short while after to ransack the home and take Douglas' car along with the jewelry she had been wearing and other items from her home.
According to Santa Clara County sheriff's Sgt. James Cardenas, Cuen drove Douglas' car to Jimenez's house, wearing Douglas' jewelry and with fresh blood on his clothes.
Jimenez allegedly gave Cuen a shirt and pair of pants to change into and then watched as Cuen burned his bloody shirt in her backyard.
Cuen then left Jimenez's home in Douglas' car. Jimenez threw Cuen's bloody Nike Air Jordan shoe and bloodstained pants into the trash can outside her house, Cardenas said.
Cuen was arrested on Sept. 15 after investigators found his fingerprint at the home of Douglas, who later died on Oct. 8.
According to Deputy District Attorney Lance Daugherty, Jimenez has continued to conceal information and obstructed the discovery of evidence up until her arrest.
Cardenas said Jimenez has lied to him continually in his interviews with her.
If convicted, Jimenez faces a sentence of three years and eight months in prison, Daugherty said.
If Cuen is convicted, he faces a sentence of life in prison, according to the district attorney's office.