Jealous of cousin, murder suspect's own words build criminal case in brutal beating

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A judge decided Monday there's enough evidence to put a Fresno man on trial for the murder of his girlfriend in November 2017, and the suspect's own words helped build the case against him.

Gabriel Salinas admitted to jealousy over the woman he described as only a friend.

"Gabriel told me he believed Charity was having sexual relations with his cousin, Gilbert, said homicide detective Victor Miranda as he described a lengthy confession he says Salinas gave.

22-year-old Charity Depina took four slaps to the face and said it didn't hurt, so Salinas accelerated the violence.

"He told me he struck her in the head two times, but the two times he hit her in the head it wasn't hard because she had injuries from the previous time he hit her," Miranda said.

In the end, coroners found dozens of injuries on her body and determined that not all of them were new.

But they noticed significant new damage to her head.

"There are three separate areas of hemorrhaging on the top of the head," said Dr. Venu Gopal. "One to the right, one to the back, one to the left side of the frontal region. All this combined will have some internal injuries to the brain."

Dr. Gopal says a combination of head, chest, and abdominal blows killed Depina and the cause of death was a homicide.

The injuries included apparent attacks to her sexual organs.

Miranda says Salinas admitted to those too and said he did it to make sure she couldn't have sexual relations with anyone else.

When it was obvious Depina was dying, Salinas tried CPR, and he told police it went further than he planned.

"He said 'Well, it's not like I was trying to kill her,'" said Fresno police officer Jesus Salinas.

Depina's father tells Action News Salinas tried to apologize to him, but it didn't seem sincere, and he says Salinas had threatened to kill his daughter before.

Defense attorney Mark Broughton says Salinas will have a defense when it comes time for a trial but didn't reveal details during or after Monday's preliminary hearing.