Sentencing Scheduled In THE GITS Murder Case

The sentencing for Jesus Mezquia, the convicted murdered of THE GITS singer Mia Zapata, has been scheduled for Friday, April 30 at 2:00 p.m. "It's at King County Superior Court, 4th and James," the band write on their web site. "There will be 'impact statements' from Mia's friends and family, which will hopefully have some influence on Judge Armstrong's sentencing. I think there is a broad range of years he can get... up to 35. It doesn't seem like enough time, but at 50 years old it is in effect a life sentence. This sentencing, like most superior court proceedings, is open to the public. I urge you to join us and let's show the Honorable Judge Armstrong just how much Mia meant to us. And let's show the scum Mezquia that he messed with the wrong woman, in the wrong band, in the wrong community!"

As previously reported, Mezquia, a 49-year-old fisherman and laborer with a history of assaults on women and only a passing connection to Seattle, was arrested in January 2003 at his home in Marathon, Fla., in the heart of the Florida Keys, more than 3,000 miles from the spot — on a dead-end street in Seattle's Central Area — where Zapata's body was found nearly 11 years ago, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Police said they used DNA evidence to tie Mezquia to the slaying.

Investigators stated last year that they had no reason to believe Zapata, 27, knew the man — only that she somehow encountered him on Capitol Hill early July 7, 1993. That's when she was strangled with the cord of her sweatshirt, which bore the name of her band.