Pantojas, it was general knowledge and a topic of discussion among the family that Pepin knew that Rosario had hired someone to kill him.
According to the defense, Mendez was not present when Nelo told her brother Loyola and others that Rosario had directed him to kill Pepin. Mendez, however, told defense investigators that Rosario regularly demanded money from Pepin. On one occasion, Mendez heard Rosario tell Pepin that Pepin would "pay" for refusing Rosario's demands for money. On another occasion, Mendez overheard a telephone conversation in which Rosario threatened to kill Pepin if he continued to refuse Rosario's demand for money. On the day that Pepin told her that he had killed Rosario, he showed Mendez a gun and said it was the gun that Rosario had given$5,000 to repair his car. The defense will seek to prove that Rosario was so irritated by Pepin's refusal to give him more cash that he told Nelo to steal Pepin's drugs and kill him.
Pepin's testimony, should he ultimately decide to testify, and his prior statements to law enforcement, bear on his state of mind at the critical point of the killings. Pepin repeatedly declared that when Rosario stood up to "jump" him, Pepin shot him in the face.
Pepin also made various statements about Madrid. He declared that Madrid and he quarreled because, after Pepin's arrest on drug charges, Madrid was reluctant to provide Pepin with drugs to sell. Because Madrid had access to hired killers, Mendez had became alarmed when she saw some menacing men in a