Trial begins in 2022 killing of Neoklis Koumides in downtown Santa Cruz parking garage

On Monday’s opening day of the murder trial of 65-year-old John Frederick Burke, a prosecutor alleged that there is strong evidence the November 2022 stabbing death of Neoklis Koumides in a downtown Santa Cruz parking garage was a calculated mission.

Assistant district attorney Michael McKinney told the jury during his opening statement that a man named Sergio Ochoa called Burke from the callbox of his apartment building on Pacific Avenue at 4:48 a.m. on Nov. 21, 2022. Burke promptly left his apartment, walked to the parking garage between Church Street and Walnut Avenue and fatally stabbed Koumides, McKinney said. 

Burke, McKinney told the court, was at the garage for only 2½ minutes and “didn’t care” that a number of unhoused residents were using the same area to shelter from the cold weather and could therefore potentially witness the attack.

At about 5:10 a.m., emergency personnel responded to a report of a fight in the parking garage. They found Koumides, an unhoused man who previously lived in the Benchlands encampment, on the ground with at least one stab wound. He was transported to Dominican Hospital, where he died. He was 36.

The next day, the Santa Cruz Police Department arrested Burke at his downtown apartment complex. Burke has pleaded not guilty.

Burke was in court on Monday represented by Santa Cruz-based defense attorney Art Dudley. In a brief opening statement, Dudley said the jury would hear some “inconsistencies” involving witness testimony and that it will be an “interesting” trial.

“What we say here, and what we say at the end of the case, is not the evidence,” he said. “If we misstate something, we are not doing it intentionally.”

Much of the first day of the trial was devoted to the prosecution’s witnesses. Krystal Buenrostro was the property manager at Mercy Housing — the apartment complex next to Pizza My Heart on Pacific Avenue where Burke lived at the time. She testified that footage from a surveillance camera on the floor where Burke’s apartment was located showed Burke — wearing a red hat — leaving his room just before 5 a.m. She also testified that Burke had received a call from the building’s callbox shortly before leaving.

Joseph Taylor, who was unhoused at the time and sleeping across the street, told the court that a man had come up to the victim in the parking lot, asked him, “where’s my f—ing money,” and began attacking him immediately. Taylor testified that he had called the police after two other bystanders asked him to do so. 

In his cross-examination, Dudley pointed to inconsistencies in what Taylor said. On Monday, Taylor said that the man wearing a red hat was the victim and had fallen to the ground, and that the attacker had a white hoodie on. When he spoke with investigators on the day of the stabbing, he said the opposite.

Taylor testified that things have gotten very difficult to remember since the day of the incident, since it has been over a year and he’s tried to put it out of his mind. However, he said that he had been as truthful as possible with law enforcement and that things were much clearer that morning than they are now. When asked if he had used any drugs or alcohol, Taylor said that he no longer uses any substances except for marijuana, but said that would not have impeded his ability to recall what happened.

SCPD Officer Samuel Hutson, who was the first emergency responder on scene, said he found Koumides on the ground and alive but mostly unresponsive. He said that the initial report called the incident a possible fight and overdose, but added that he did not see any drug paraphernalia, blood or signs of a struggle. 

Hutson testified that he found a puncture wound on the left side of Koumides’ chest. He also identified Taylor as a witness who was sheltering in a doorway of the building directly across Church Street from the parking lot.

The prosecution’s last two witnesses described surveillance footage gathered from businesses and buildings in the area and Burke’s apartment complex. While no video was shown, still images depicting the camera angles were. They confirmed that the video stills were all from cameras in the same area on the same day, right around the time of the crime.

SCPD Community Service Officer Tim Cattera viewed a slideshow of stills from the surveillance footage, showing all of the streets Burke could have taken to reach Koumides in the garage. They ranged from a kiosk outside New Leaf Community Market and a camera at Motiv nightclub on Pacific Avenue to cameras on and around the parking garage, inside stores across the street, and even one from a parked semi truck in the alley adjacent to the lot.

Koumides, also known as “Nick the Greek,” hosted the podcast “Love Wins,” in which he discussed societal issues with guests and friends.

Burke is due back in court Tuesday at 10 a.m.

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.