Oakland Hills Murder Case Going to Jury

Bay City News--A defense attorney told jurors Thursday that there is no evidence to prove the prosecution's allegation that Eric Mora murdered his ex-girlfriend, who disappeared more than seven years ago and has never been found.

Prosecutors filed murder charges against Mora in February 2007 after Oakland police said Cynthia Linda Alonzo's blood was recovered from the room where she stayed with him at his home at 6201 Brookside Ave., near The College Preparatory School in the Oakland hills, and he had multiple scratches on his hands after she disappeared.

In his closing argument in Mora's trial, defense lawyer Colin Cooper said the prosecution's case against the 55-year-old Oakland man is "myopic and narrow-minded," is based on "speculation and conjecture" and is "belied by any physical evidence." Cooper said jurors shouldn't believe the prosecution's witnesses, saying most of them are "drug users and serial felons who have a motive to lie."

Alonzo was 48 when she disappeared in November 2004 and prosecutor Danielle London said there's been no trace of her ever since.

Although Alonzo's body has never been found, London said she believes that circumstantial evidence, including DNA, ties Mora to Alonzo's death.

Alonzo's family members reported her missing when she failed to show up for Thanksgiving dinner at her mother's house in San Francisco on Nov. 25, 2004.

London told jurors in her closing argument on Wednesday that there's enough evidence to convict Mora of murder even though Alonzo's body hasn't been found and it's not known how she was killed.

"We don't know it all but we know enough," London said.

The prosecutor said she believes Mora killed Alonzo because he had recently inherited some money and property with his mother and didn't want to share it with Alonzo.

"He was done with her and had buyer's remorse," London alleged.

Earlier in the trial, Alonzo's daughter testified that Mora was evasive when she questioned him about her mother's disappearance.

Terresa Jones was an early witness in the trial, which began in January. She said Mora claimed he hadn't seen Alonzo in two weeks when she confronted Mora the day after Alonzo failed to show up for her family's Thanksgiving dinner.

Jones said she told Mora that couldn't be true because Alonzo had been at Mora's Brookside Drive home when she spoke to Alonzo by phone four days before Thanksgiving.

Jones also said she thought it was strange that a rug in the bedroom at Mora's house where her mother stayed was missing. She said all of her mother's belongings were still in the bedroom, including her identity and Social Security cards and a prepaid debit card.

London, the prosecutor, was scheduled to present her rebuttal closing argument Thursday afternoon and jurors were to begin deliberating Mora's fate either late Thursday or next Monday.

Mora's case bears some resemblances to that of Oakland computer programmer Hans Reiser, who was prosecuted in a lengthy trial in 2007 and 2008 on charges that he murdered his wife, Nina Reiser, who disappeared on Sept. 3, 2006, even though her body hadn't been found. Reiser ultimately was convicted of murder for her death and later led authorities to the location in the Oakland hills where he had buried her body.

Aside from the fact that both men were prosecuted even though the bodies of their alleged victims hadn't been found, at one point Oakland defense lawyer William DuBois represented both men and Alameda County Superior Court Judge Larry Goodman presided over both cases.

On July 30, 2008, at the end of a preliminary hearing that started on Sept. 10, 2007, and met intermittently during and after Reiser's trial, Goodman ruled that there was sufficient evidence for Mora to stand trial on charges that he murdered Alonzo. But another judge dismissed the original case in September 2009, ruling that Mora hadn't clearly waived his right to have his preliminary hearing held in one continuous session.

Prosecutors immediately filed new charges against Mora and on May 13, 2010, at the end of a second preliminary hearing another judge also ruled that there was enough evidence for Mora to stand trial. Mora had already replaced DuBois by that point and went through two more defense lawyers before finally deciding last fall to have Cooper represent him.

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