Tessa Donnelly and the Los Gatos Love Triangle Murder

The Los Gatos love triangle murder was the March 14, 2008 killing of 53-year-old restaurateur Mark Achilli, shot eight times in the driveway of his Overlook Road townhouse by a hitman hired by Esequiel “Paul” Garcia, the younger businessman who had bought Achilli’s restaurants months earlier and who had become consumed by jealousy over a bartender named Tessa Donnelly. Garcia, the shooter Lucio Estrada, and middleman Miguel Chaidez were all convicted of first-degree murder in 2010.¹

The Three People at the Center

Mark Achilli had been a fixture of the Los Gatos bar and restaurant scene for about two decades. He co-owned Mountain Charley’s on North Santa Cruz Avenue for roughly eight years and in 2005 opened the adjacent 180 Restaurant & Lounge.² In September 2007 he sold both venues to Paul Garcia and started looking for his next project.

Tessa Donnelly, a bartender in her late twenties, had worked for Achilli at Mountain Charley’s since 2004 and had dated him for about four years.³ She broke things off in September 2007 after learning he was seeing another woman, and within weeks began dating Garcia, the new owner of the restaurants where she still worked.⁴

How Jealousy Turned Into a Murder Plot

Garcia moved fast. He talked about marriage and children, and Donnelly later testified that she grew uncomfortable with what she described as possessive behavior.⁴ She ended the sexual part of the relationship in early November 2007. In January 2008 she told Garcia she did not love him and was going back to Achilli, and Garcia responded by demoting her from bar manager to bartender.⁵

Donnelly kept seeing Garcia intermittently through February, including trips to Portland, Carmel, and Las Vegas, which she said were not romantic. By early March she had committed to Achilli. Two weeks before the killing, Achilli showed up at Donnelly’s apartment and found Garcia there.³ On March 10, four days before the murder, Garcia texted Donnelly: “Stop sharing me. Hopefully it will be sooner than later.”⁴

By then the plot was already in motion. Prosecutors established, largely through the testimony of Daniel Chaidez, a 24-year-old bouncer who had worked for Garcia, that Garcia approached him in January 2008 and asked whether he “knew anyone who could get rid of a problem.”³ Garcia capped the price at $10,000. Daniel brought in his cousin Miguel Chaidez, who recruited a Southern California hitman, Lucio Estrada, for $9,500.¹

Garcia supplied a photograph of Achilli and his home address. He discussed making the killing look like a drug deal gone bad. According to Daniel’s testimony, Garcia also told him that if Donnelly happened to be at the house when the hitman arrived, she should be killed too.³ Daniel wired $2,500 to Miguel on March 12 and delivered $5,500 in cash on March 13. After the shooting, he met Miguel at a gas station near Highway 152 and Highway 5 to hand over the final $6,500.

The Shooting on Overlook Road

Around 11:30 a.m. on March 14, 2008, Estrada walked up to Achilli’s townhouse on Overlook Road and opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun. Achilli was hit eight times, in the head, jaw, chest, arm, and leg. The medical examiner later testified that a bullet fired from within three feet at the base of Achilli’s throat passed through his brain and was “immediately fatal.”⁶

Only two nights earlier, Donnelly and Achilli had been in Las Vegas celebrating his birthday and talking about getting married. They exchanged text messages professing their love the night before he was shot.⁴

Los Gatos Police Sergeant Matt Frisby led the investigation. Phone tower records placed Estrada’s cell phone in Los Gatos the morning of the shooting.⁶ Miguel Chaidez eventually produced a handwritten confession describing how he had arranged the hit. Daniel Chaidez drove himself to the police department early in the case and walked investigators through the plan, cooperation that became the spine of the prosecution.⁷

Convictions and Sentences

Daniel Chaidez resolved his case first. In January 2009 he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, solicitation to commit murder, and accessory to murder, and received 12 years and 8 months in state prison with a requirement to serve at least 85 percent. In exchange, he agreed to testify against the others.⁷

The trial of Garcia, Miguel Chaidez, and Estrada opened in September 2010 in Santa Clara County Superior Court. The defense argued that Achilli’s death was tied to a drug debt and that the defendants were being scapegoated. Garcia testified in his own defense in October 2010, admitting he had downloaded a photograph of Achilli but saying it was meant for a private investigator, not a hitman.⁸

On October 26, 2010, the jury found all three defendants guilty of first-degree murder. The jury also found true a special circumstance that Garcia had solicited the killing, which under California law carries a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole.³ On May 10, 2012, Judge David Cena formally sentenced Garcia to life without parole and ordered him to San Quentin, with credit for 1,506 days already served.⁹ Estrada, the shooter, also received life without parole. Miguel Chaidez, the middleman, received 25 years to life.¹⁰

The California Court of Appeal affirmed the convictions in an unpublished opinion on March 20, 2015.³

Tessa Donnelly on the Stand

Donnelly was one of the trial’s most anticipated witnesses. She testified on September 15, 2010, entering and exiting through the judge’s chambers as a security precaution.¹¹ She described Garcia as “possessive and obsessive,” walked the jury through the timeline of her relationships with both men, and said she and Achilli had been talking about marriage. She became emotional when prosecutors showed her the text messages she had exchanged with Achilli the night before he was killed.⁴

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Harry Robertson, Donnelly acknowledged that Garcia had never explicitly said he wanted Achilli killed, noting that the worst thing he had said about him was that he was “old.” The defense also pressed her on daily marijuana use and alcohol consumption that occasionally caused blackouts.¹¹ Donnelly was a witness, not a suspect; no charges were ever brought against her in connection with the killing.

Garcia’s Continuing Claims of Innocence

Garcia has maintained he had nothing to do with the murder. In 2017 he filed a Brady-Pitchess motion seeking the personnel files of the officers who investigated him, alleging that detectives were corrupt and had tampered with his cell phone to manufacture evidence of guilt. The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office dismissed the effort, calling Garcia “a murderer who is serving a life sentence and whose conviction was upheld on appeal.” The Town of Los Gatos opposed the motion as well.¹² He remains incarcerated and serving life without the possibility of parole.

The $14 Million Civil Judgment

In 2010 Achilli’s widow, Michele, and his daughter, Alexandra, filed a wrongful death suit against Garcia, Miguel Chaidez, Estrada, Daniel Chaidez, and Robert Jacome, alleging negligence, assault, battery, and intentional misconduct.¹³ Michele Achilli died in a 2012 motor vehicle collision, and Alexandra continued as the sole plaintiff.¹⁴

After liability was decided on summary adjudication, a three-day damages trial was held in December 2016 before Judge Drew Takaichi. Most defendants had defaulted. Garcia, representing himself from prison, declined to appear telephonically when offered the chance, which the appellate court later ruled was a voluntary waiver.¹⁵ Alexandra Achilli testified that her father had been “robbed of being a grandfather” and had missed the births of four grandchildren, as well as her college graduation.¹⁶

After about two hours of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of $45,125,008: $20 million in noneconomic damages and $25 million in punitive damages.¹⁴ Judge Takaichi reduced the punitive award from $25 million to $1 million, which the plaintiff accepted. Garcia was assigned 70 percent of the noneconomic damages, putting his share at $14 million.¹⁷

On February 4, 2022, the Sixth District Court of Appeal affirmed the $14 million noneconomic damages against Garcia, finding substantial evidence supported the number and that it did not “shock the conscience.”¹⁵ The court reversed the reduced $1 million punitive award, however, holding that the only evidence of Garcia’s finances concerned restaurant transactions from 2007 — nine years before the civil trial — and was too stale to support any punitive award.¹⁷ Attorney Robert Bohn Jr., who represented Alexandra Achilli, later said the judgment is “essentially uncollectable” given that Garcia is serving a life sentence.¹⁸

1
CBS News Bay Area. Three Found Guilty in Killing of Los Gatos Restaurateur
2
Metro Silicon Valley. News Achilli
3
GovInfo. Estrada v. McDowell, Case No. 16-cv-02827-YGR
4
Mercury News. Tessa Donnelly Testifies in Los Gatos Murder-for-Hire Trial
5
ABC7 News. Archive Report on Los Gatos Murder-for-Hire
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Mercury News. Testimony Shows How Mark Achilli Was Gunned Down
7
Mercury News. Co-Defendant Sentenced in Plea Deal in Slaying of Popular Los Gatos Business Owner
8
Santa Cruz Sentinel. Achilli Case Live Blog, Los Gatos Murder-for-Hire Trial
9
Patch. Los Gatos Murder-for-Hire Convict Paul Garcia’s Retrial Motion Denied
10
East Bay Times. Middleman in Los Gatos Murder-for-Hire Case Gets 25 Years to Life in Prison
11
CBS News Bay Area. Girlfriend of Slain Los Gatos Restaurateur Testifies
12
NBC Bay Area. Man Convicted in Los Gatos Love Triangle Murder Says He Is Innocent
13
CBS News Bay Area. Family Files Civil Suit in Murder of Los Gatos Restaurateur
14
Law.com VerdictSearch. Suit: Hitman Hired to Murder Former Restaurant Owner
15
CaseMine. Achilli v. Garcia, Case No. H044731
16
Mercury News. Achilli Case: Jury Issues $45 Million Civil Award in Los Gatos Murder-for-Hire
17
Metropolitan News-Enterprise. $14 Million Judgment Affirmed
18
The Los Gatan. Los Gatos Venue That Once Served as Backdrop to Murder-for-Hire Case Has Been Sold Again