Thursday, May 25, 2006; Updated: 6:39 p.m. PDT
Former De Anza staff member Alexandre Hochstraser told his mother he killed his girlfriend, Dolores Gonzales, in a taped phone call presented as evidence at a preliminary hearing Wednesday.
“I killed Dolores,” the man on the tape, believed to be Hochstraser, told his mother in a collect call from the Santa Clara County Jail following his arrest.
While the tape was being played during Wednesday’s hearing, Hochstraser sat quietly and read a transcript of the call.
Hochstraser was dressed in a black Santa Clara Department of Corrections shirt and red pants, had short hair, wire-rimmed glasses, and a goatee. He appeared to have lost weight since his arrest last June.
Hochstraser is charged with one count of murder.
In June, police discovered a dismembered body later identified to be Dolores Gonzales in a maroon Volkswagen Jetta belonging to Hochstraser’s mother.
In the car, police officers found six blue plastic bins, a Sawzall reciprocating saw, a box of trash bags, a retractable knife and a small step ladder, according to officer Stacy McFarlane of the Santa Clara Police Department.
Police found dismembered body parts in trash bags in five of the bins, he said.
In the last bin, they found a towel, bedding and underwear which were all covered in blood, McFarlane said.
Defense attorney Ken Robinson questioned Sergeant Steve Brauer about whether or not police had probable cause to enter Hochstraser’s apartment without a warrant.
Brauer had instructed officer Tom Liepelt to enter Hochstraser’s apartment through an open window after no one responded to police knocking.
“I just wasn’t sure that no one was in there,” Brauer said. Brauer said that once he, Liepelt and officer Jennifer Lamendola entered the apartment at around 10:30 p.m. and found Hochstraser sitting in the dark in the master bedroom, staring at a wall.
Hochstraser was on a mattress with no bedding, Brauer said.
McFarlane said police found a blood stain on the underside of the mattress. A crime lab test later revealed the blood was Gonzales’s.
In the living room, police found a t-shirt with blood drops on the couch and an open package of reciprocating saw blades, he said.
One of the saw blades appeared to be used, according to McFarlane.
When police searched the bathroom, they found blood drippings on the bath tub, according to McFarlane.
He said the smell of bleach was noticeable throughout the entire apartment and particularly strong in the bathroom.
Gonzales’s family plans to set up a foundation in her name, according to Carol Gonzales, Dolores Gonzales’s sister.
Brauer, Liepelt, Lamendola and two other officers were awarded the Santa Clara Police Department Commendation Certificate for their “courage and exemplary work in initiating a homicide investigation” into Gonzales’s murder, according to the 2004-2005 Santa Clara Police Department Annual Report.
The next hearing is scheduled for June 5.
