Koumides was ‘fighting for his life,’ witness testifies in downtown garage murder trial

The last time Javier Horvath saw his friend Neoklis Koumides, he was “fighting for his life.” 

Horvath, who was unhoused at the time that Koumides was stabbed to death inside a downtown Santa Cruz parking garage in November 2022, testified Tuesday in the murder trial of 65-year-old John Frederick Burke.

Horvath, 24, has lived in Santa Cruz since he was 2 months old. He left Santa Cruz around 2019 and moved around for a number of years before returning to the city in 2022 without a place to live. He said that he had known Koumides since about 2016. He called the 36-year-old Koumides — a former resident of the Benchlands who was also known as “Nick the Greek” — “an outstanding young individual.”

Horvath told a jury assembled in a Santa Cruz courtroom that he had been sleeping in the parking garage at Church Street and Walnut Avenue when he awoke early on the morning of Nov. 21, 2022. 

He said he saw Koumides in an altercation with another man. He watched Koumides shake, stumble and eventually fall to the ground before the attacker kicked him as he lay on the garage floor. He added that he had never seen the attacker before.

Horvath told the court that he could see a knife on the attacker’s person just before the man walked away. When prosecutor Michael McKinney showed him a picture of the knife used to stab Koumides, Horvath confirmed it looked like the weapon he saw: “That looks exactly like it.”

However, when Burke’s attorney, Art Dudley, cross-examined Horvath, he admitted that he didn’t actually see the attacker stab Koumides. Horvath said only that he saw the attacker push Koumides hard, causing him to fall and hit his head on the ground.

His description of the attacker also differed from that of eyewitness Joseph Taylor’s on Monday. Taylor described the man as about 6 feet tall and around 180 pounds. Horvath described him as much bigger — somewhere around 6-foot-5 to 6-foot-6 and about 240 pounds.

Kenny Besk, a police inspector with the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office, walked the jury through a slideshow he made out of footage taken from security cameras in the area. The slideshow, Besk testified, showed the route prosecutors allege Burke took from his downtown Santa Cruz apartment complex to the parking garage between 4:55 and 5:05 a.m. on the morning of the stabbing. 

Besk pointed out Burke leaving his apartment building on Pacific Avenue in the same red hat, trench coat and white shoes that he had on in stills taken by surveillance cameras inside Burke’s apartment building. As Burke approached the parking garage, Besk added, the footage showed the man reaching underneath his coat as if grasping an object. Footage from near the parking garage did not show the stabbing itself, but showed other unhoused people sheltering nearby quickly turn to look toward the area where Koumides’ body was later found before they promptly left the area. 

Besk then reviewed footage showing Burke heading back to his apartment complex. In it, Besk pointed out, a shiny, reflective, metallic object was visible near Burke’s right hip. In camera footage taken from within the apartment complex, a knife sheath is clearly visible near Burke’s belt.

On Monday, prosecution witnesses testified that Burke received a phone call before leaving his apartment shortly before the stabbing. 

Joseph Taylor, who was unhoused at the time and sleeping across the street, told the court that a man had come up to Koumides in the parking lot, asked him, “where’s my f—ing money,” and began attacking him immediately. 

The case returns to court Wednesday, when more witnesses are expected to testify.

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