Former L.A. fire captain denies strangling woman

A former Los Angeles fire captain accused of murdering a woman at his Eagle Rock home told jurors Thursday that he did not kill the victim but conceded that he could not recall large portions of the night of the slaying.

David Del Toro, 54, told jurors that he allowed Jennifer Flores, 42, who he met years earlier when she dated his former roommate, to use his home to wash clothes and stay overnight after learning she was homeless.

The 23-year Fire Department veteran acknowledged that he exchanged sharp words with Flores when he refused to let her borrow his pickup truck. He said he grabbed her when she became belligerent, but he denied injuring her.

“I went to grab her, not to hurt her but to talk to her,” he testified.

After drinking heavily on Aug. 15, 2006, Del Toro said, he went to bed drunk and exhausted, leaving Flores watching television on the living room couch. He said he woke during the night and cleaned a mess that he could not explain before returning to bed. That mess included a large pool of blood that police found the next morning in his living room.

“It was just [a] fog,” he testified. “I was confused, disoriented.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bobby Grace questioned how Del Toro was unable to recall large portions of the night yet remain adamant that he did not kill Flores.

“I can’t be 100% sure when the question is like that,” Del Toro replied. “But I’m saying I didn’t kill her. I had no reason to kill her.”

Prosecutors allege that Del Toro strangled Flores at his Vincent Avenue home and dumped her body nearly a mile away. Police found a trail of blood and other genetic material leading from Flores’ naked body on Loleta Avenue to a red stain outside the firefighter’s house.

Inside the home, detectives discovered the victim’s purse, backpack and belongings, as well as her blood. They also found a carpet saturated with blood that someone had attempted to clean up. In addition, the victim’s blood was found inside Del Toro’s Toyota Tundra truck.

Defense attorney Joseph Gutierrez suggested at the start of the trial that another unidentified man could have been responsible for Flores’ death.

Del Toro testified that he allowed Flores to stay at his home because he felt sorry for her, and he denied any romantic interest.

She was at his house in the late afternoon when a stranger came to the door and spoke to her outside for about five minutes, Del Toro said. He said the man identified himself as either Rick or Nick.

Del Toro said the sight of the stranger alarmed him. He feared the man intended to rob him, but Flores told him not to worry. She left the home later but did not tell Del Toro where she was going or with whom before she returned to the house, he testified.

Phone records show that Del Toro and Flores traded phone calls that afternoon and evening.

He testified that he had been drinking heavily during the day after a tough shift at work in which he responded to the killings of a woman and young boy. He also had recently worked a grueling series of 24-hour shifts, leaving him sleep-deprived.

After falling asleep that night, Del Toro said, he woke up and wandered outside to find his truck missing but went back to bed without calling police.

The prosecutor questioned how Flores’ blood had been found inside Del Toro’s truck and on a glove left in his kitchen. Inside the glove, police discovered Del Toro’s DNA.

“Someone put it there,” Del Toro told the court.

Grace questioned the likelihood of an intruder entering the house, noting that police found a Treasury check worth more than $5,800 and $100 in cash still on Del Toro’s dining room table the next morning.

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