WASHINGTON – Jurors in the Fairfax County trial of a man accused of killing 19-year-old Vanessa Pham watched on Wednesday a videotaped statement and confession made by the suspect.
Prosecutors are attempting to prove Julio Miguel Blanco Garcia stabbed the college freshman after she agreed to give him and his infant daughter a ride to the hospital in June 2010.
The defense argues Blanco Garcia, who was arrested last year and is charged with first-degree murder, was high on PCP and did not realize his actions at the time.
ABC7 reports Blanco Garcia’s statement shows him apologizing, saying he’s “not a bad guy” and saying, “I don’t know what happened.”
Blanco Garcia, who reportedly had been living in the country illegally, admits in the confession to being high on PCP and to stabbing Pham in the chest. He says Pham took the wrong way en route to the hospital, and he became paranoid.
“In my mind, because I was hallucinating, I thought she was gonna do something … and that’s when I just did what I did, you know, (took) the knife, but I’m really sorry for what happened,” he says.
“I just grabbed the knife and did what I did.”
In the tape, Blanco Garcia says Pham “was crying” but didn’t say anything as he stabbed her.
He also expressed confusion when initially learning he was charged with murder, ABC7 says.
Other footage shown in court Wednesday showed Blanco Garcia before he encountered Pham and Pham’s car arriving at and departing from a shopping center before she was killed.
See raw footage of Blanco Garcia’s confession, courtesy of NBC Washington, along with more from ABC7 below:
See more footage from Day 3 in the trial below:
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