KingJeremy
01-13-2003, 06:36 PM
MIAMI -- The Florida man charged in the 1993 rape and slaying of rising punk-rock singer Mia Zapata is a fisherman and construction worker who has a criminal record, The Seattle Times reported Sunday.
Jesus C. Mezquia, 48, of Marathon, in the Florida Keys, was being held without bail at the Miami-Dade County Jail on a fugitive warrant charging murder and violation of probation. He was arrested late Friday in the Miami area and charged with first-degree murder after DNA evidence linked him to the killing, police said.
Zapata, the 27-year-old lead singer of the Gits, was found dead on a Seattle street on July 7, 1993. She had been beaten, raped and strangled with the drawstring of her Gits sweat shirt.
Florida prison and probation records show a Jesus C. Mezquia, with a different birth date listed, was placed on probation in 1997 for aggravated battery involving a pregnant woman. He also was charged last year in Miami-Dade County with possessing burglary tools.
Two "cold-case" detectives with the Seattle Police Department, with help from Miami-Dade police and Monroe County sheriff's detectives, had Mezquia under surveillance for a number of days before his arrest.
Investigators cracked the case in December, when Mezquia's DNA profile was entered into the National DNA Index System and matched with evidence taken from the scene of Zapata's slaying.
Married and the father of at least one child, Mezquia appeared to earn his living in Florida from construction work and fishing, the Times reported.
Zapata was little-known nationally but popular locally at the height of Seattle's grunge-rock scene in the early '90s.
Her death prompted an all-night vigil attended by 1,000 people as well as the creation of a self-defense group called Home Alive.
The Seattle music community -- including Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Soundgarden -- raised $70,000 to hire a private investigator for three years, but eventually the funds dried up.
"It's just a great relief," Charles Cross, longtime editor of the defunct Seattle music magazine The Rocket, said after hearing of Mezquia's arrest. "Mia was a great singer, and with the timing of it -- how powerful a stage presence she was and what a major talent she was -- the band clearly was on to much bigger things."
Jesus C. Mezquia, 48, of Marathon, in the Florida Keys, was being held without bail at the Miami-Dade County Jail on a fugitive warrant charging murder and violation of probation. He was arrested late Friday in the Miami area and charged with first-degree murder after DNA evidence linked him to the killing, police said.
Zapata, the 27-year-old lead singer of the Gits, was found dead on a Seattle street on July 7, 1993. She had been beaten, raped and strangled with the drawstring of her Gits sweat shirt.
Florida prison and probation records show a Jesus C. Mezquia, with a different birth date listed, was placed on probation in 1997 for aggravated battery involving a pregnant woman. He also was charged last year in Miami-Dade County with possessing burglary tools.
Two "cold-case" detectives with the Seattle Police Department, with help from Miami-Dade police and Monroe County sheriff's detectives, had Mezquia under surveillance for a number of days before his arrest.
Investigators cracked the case in December, when Mezquia's DNA profile was entered into the National DNA Index System and matched with evidence taken from the scene of Zapata's slaying.
Married and the father of at least one child, Mezquia appeared to earn his living in Florida from construction work and fishing, the Times reported.
Zapata was little-known nationally but popular locally at the height of Seattle's grunge-rock scene in the early '90s.
Her death prompted an all-night vigil attended by 1,000 people as well as the creation of a self-defense group called Home Alive.
The Seattle music community -- including Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Soundgarden -- raised $70,000 to hire a private investigator for three years, but eventually the funds dried up.
"It's just a great relief," Charles Cross, longtime editor of the defunct Seattle music magazine The Rocket, said after hearing of Mezquia's arrest. "Mia was a great singer, and with the timing of it -- how powerful a stage presence she was and what a major talent she was -- the band clearly was on to much bigger things."