- 2 days ago
In 2021, with the clubs all locked down for Covid, young women in Northern California flock to an underground car scene called a sideshow; when 19-year-old Leilani Beauchamp starts turning heads, things go from fast and furious to deadly.
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00:00We would go to the slideshows, we definitely turn heads.
00:16We were the takeovers.
00:18We would walk around like our shit doesn't stink.
00:21People are just intimidated.
00:22When they see us, when they see how we dress,
00:24how we come and how we talk, they're intimidated by who we are.
00:28You would get the dirty looks from girls a lot of the time.
00:31She was just sitting in the car and this girl opened up the door
00:35and was screaming, going off.
00:37And that's when it like really, really hit me that something is wrong.
00:41I see blood in the hallway as well as a hole in the wall.
00:45I was in utter shock, just in disbelief.
00:49I remember I couldn't feel my body.
00:51How crazy and delusional are you?
00:53I think she's just one bitter evil bitch.
00:58If you were a young woman in Oakland, California, looking for fun on a Friday night during the pandemic,
01:13chances are you might find yourself at a fast and furious underground phenomenon known as a sideshow.
01:20I can't really tell you about the origin because it's been going on for so, so long.
01:28Sideshows have been embedded into the car scene since the beginning of the car scene.
01:32That's why Fast and Furious has so many sideshows and takeovers references in the movie because it's been around for so long.
01:39I would describe sideshows as a place where you can show your car off, the sound of it, the speed of it, and your driving skills.
01:49We'd call them shutdowns.
01:51They'd shut down intersections, bridges, even freeways.
02:01There was like a huge circle of people around and then in the middle of like the intersection is just the cars doing donuts.
02:08And everybody's just standing around watching, recording.
02:11It was in different areas, so Sacramento, Oakland, San Francisco, like the entire SAC in the Bay Area.
02:21It was a huge thing.
02:23Impeding traffic, driving recklessly, putting everyone at risk, and then speeding off when the cops show up.
02:28It's kind of a recipe for disaster if you ask me.
02:31What was fun was just having something to do during that time of the pandemic and everything was shut down.
02:39All like clubs, bars, all those were closed.
02:42It was like an outlet for people to go do something.
02:47For the young, mostly male drivers in the scene, it's a chance to chase clout by showing off their souped-up modified rides.
02:55And for most of the young women...
02:57There's car girls that are into it for the cars.
03:00And then there's car girls that are more into it for the scene itself.
03:04The women are hoes, okay?
03:06They're hoes out there looking for their fish, but thinking,
03:10Who's Carmichael being?
03:12I can't say they're all hoes, but at least 60% of them are hoes.
03:16You feel me?
03:22It was a sideshow community, so everybody had their own little clicks.
03:26The clicks had their own little names and stuff, like we were the takeovers.
03:31And as in every click, each girl in the takeovers has a role to play.
03:36Kiera is the proud and playful party girl.
03:39I mean, beer pong, drinking games, drunk twister.
03:43Like, F it, let's do it.
03:45Then there's Amy, the bonafide car expert with a need for speed.
03:50I drove a McLaren yesterday, $200,000 car, and it was the best feeling in the world.
03:59Sarah doesn't care much about cars, but is always happy to come along for the ride.
04:05It was always just like, oh, you'll have fun, just come, whatever.
04:09And they were really fun in the beginning, because Sacramento is kind of boring and there's not a lot going on.
04:15And the glue holding the takeovers together is 19-year-old college student and influencer in the making, Leilani Beecham.
04:23She's so chill.
04:25She's just hella tight.
04:27She's just that girl, like, period.
04:29She's pretty, she got a body, you feel me?
04:31And she don't play no games, like, you know, like, she's just that girl.
04:35Her personality was super big.
04:38I really wasn't into cars that much until I met her.
04:41She kind of brought me into the world.
04:44I'm Leilani's best friend, like, soulmate, period.
04:48We met in, like, first grade at elementary school.
04:54And it was just literally, like, thing one, thing two.
04:59When we were little, she wanted to be a little model for the cars or whatever.
05:02I said, okay, girl, you can do it.
05:05You better, you, we fit to be models, okay?
05:08But she has an attitude.
05:10She got a mouth just like me, you know, like, don't play.
05:15Get in like a drum, don't need a reason.
05:20She'd be very blunt, for sure.
05:22But that's why we get along, because we're the same.
05:25I remember me FaceTiming her, like, one time.
05:29She answered the phone and she was like, what the do you want?
05:33And I was like, try again.
05:38We love to instigate each other a little bit, but, like, as a joke.
05:45With Leilani leading the pack, the takeovers are impossible to ignore.
05:50When we would show up at the car meets, we definitely turned heads.
05:56Oh, my gosh.
05:57We were very out there.
05:59Spunky, spontaneous.
06:01We all looked good, all dressed very good.
06:03We'd walk in, I always head held high.
06:06Not that anyone wants to sound conceited.
06:09Honestly, no.
06:11We were.
06:12We were most definitely conceited.
06:15We would walk around like our shit doesn't stink.
06:17Most definitely.
06:18If it's so fast, they won't see me coming.
06:24The guys would definitely try to show out as well.
06:27They would wash their cars, polish them up, get a fresh oil change,
06:31so they could rev the crap out of it.
06:36Revving your car was one way to get attention and also give it.
06:43So, if you were a cute girl walking by, it was a great way to maybe get their attention.
06:50Leilani definitely got a lot of revs, even just out in public in general.
06:55They would rev it and just blow everyone's ears out.
07:01I mean, it's crazy.
07:03But people are just intimidated.
07:05When they see us, when they see how we dress, how we come and how we talk,
07:08they're intimidated by who we are.
07:11It's like, there's ranks to it.
07:12It was very competitive.
07:14Very, very competitive.
07:16And very sexist, too.
07:18At the top of the ladder are the girls who drive.
07:21You'll see some of the best drivers are women.
07:26The girls get the most respect.
07:28That's like one side.
07:29And then there's the car models who are not car enthusiasts.
07:33They will have their lashes done.
07:34They'll have their hair done.
07:36Those girls will get asked a lot of the times,
07:37hey, can you take a picture in front of my car?
07:40I mean, I've even seen girls half-naked posing on cars in front of everyone.
07:47I don't think the car scene necessarily respects those girls.
07:52Then there's also being passenger princess.
07:55Those girls sit in the car and just sit in passenger.
07:58They don't want to get out.
08:00Passenger princess, you get to sit and be pretty, be cute,
08:04take the pictures, get driven around.
08:07It's kind of a flex to have a pretty girl in your passenger seat.
08:10I would say that Leilani was a passenger princess who wanted to be in the driver's seat.
08:19She was a girly girl.
08:21She liked makeup.
08:22She liked nails, jewelry, hair, clothes.
08:26She likes to sit in a passenger seat and look pretty and be cute.
08:31But if someone offered her, hey, you want to drive my car?
08:35She's saying yes.
08:36She's in it for both.
08:37And then there are the girls who have been around the block more than a few times.
08:43There's the older people, and those are probably the OGs.
08:46You'd see them around and you know of them, but I never really affiliated myself
08:51or like went out my way to be like, oh my God, hi, or can I?
08:54You know, it was never really like that.
08:57The OGs are led by 24-year-old Jessica Quintanilla,
09:01who has been organizing these events since before the pandemic.
09:04We would get the dirty looks from girls like Jessica a lot of the time.
09:09I don't know if it's because they're insecure or they think we're there for their man,
09:14because we're not.
09:16So with people like Jessica, I definitely would keep going.
09:21Jessica works in an assisted care home where she's giving back and helping out the elderly.
09:28But she also is this popular party girl who goes to these parties, passes word around for these sideshows,
09:35isn't afraid to fight people, kind of gets what she wants.
09:41She felt that she was in a place to tell people what to do with these sideshows.
09:45Not necessarily like demanding respect, but I guess bossy would be a loose term I can use,
09:51where she felt like she can boss people into, hey, this is how my sideshow is going to be.
09:55The car show community, it brings whole different types of groups that are coming,
10:01like people that are in gangs, people are bringing guns, people are getting ran over,
10:05people are getting arrested, and it was like a normal thing.
10:08If you're at a slideshow and it's attracting the wrong type of crowd,
10:15it can definitely turn into a dangerous situation where your life could be on the line.
10:22Anytime I'm going to like a party or a car meet, a slideshow,
10:26I'm definitely cautious of who I interact with and who I piss off.
10:31I remember one night, Leilani was at a Psyche party and a couple of our other friends were there too.
10:46This girl got into a fight with somebody and had a handle, a liquor bottle in her hand.
10:55And smashed it over somebody else's head.
10:58Leilani told me about it happening.
11:02I was like, oh, snap.
11:04This world is scary, but, you know, I don't think you realize certain things,
11:08so you know it happens to you.
11:16When we would go to the car meets, we would definitely dress a certain type of way.
11:22We don't know who we're going to meet.
11:23Sometimes celebrities would attend these events, like car influencers.
11:29It was definitely like a setting where you would go to see and be seen, I would say.
11:36And it's also a great place to meet a significant other.
11:42And in early 2021, that's exactly what happens to 19-year-old leader of the takeovers, Leilani Beecham.
11:48We always talk about our dating scene, our love life, you know, our sneaky links, whatever and whatnot.
11:55It's what we do. We're girls.
11:57There was like this one guy she was messing with, you know, like Juan.
12:01I met him. He seemed cool, you know.
12:03So I was like, period. Go, girl. Get it.
12:05Juan is 20-year-old Juan Para Peralta, an airman with the U.S. Air Force.
12:12And when he's not busy with Uncle Sam, he's a major player in the local underground car scene.
12:18Juan is very popular and very well-known in the sideshow community.
12:22His Instagram had, you know, a lot of traction.
12:25He was coordinating some sideshows. He was passing work.
12:27A lot of people that were going to these knew who Juan was.
12:32I remember she had told us about an interest that she had in him.
12:37She knew him for about a year.
12:39She was proud of the fact that Juan was an airman, that he was in the Air Force.
12:44My father's a colonel in the Air Force.
12:46Being around Juan in the car show community kind of just levels you up and you have more status being around him or, you know, if he messes with you, then you're good.
13:00And maybe that's kind of what drawn Leilani to him.
13:05The first time we hung out, he seemed cool, but I will say, like, he definitely thought he was the shit.
13:13I definitely got the womanizer impression.
13:16It just rubbed me wrong, you know.
13:19The cockiness, it's like, calm down, you know, like, you're not all that.
13:26But I respected that Leilani was in control of the situation.
13:30She knew what she wanted. She knew what she didn't want.
13:34And what Leilani appears to want with Juan in May of 2021 is to be his passenger princess.
13:39While at the same time, keeping things casual.
13:43It was more because of her last relationship she was in was about two and a half years.
13:48And she finally decided she was done.
13:51She's in college. She's not ready to jump into a serious relationship right away.
13:56She just wasn't ready to commit just yet.
13:59That's kind of what she told me.
14:00She said, you know, I like him, but I'm still young. I'm still doing my thing in college.
14:07I don't think I'm ready to be in a committed relationship with him yet.
14:11And I said, okay, just take your time.
14:12We all kind of knew they were, you know, together.
14:18But it's not like I seen him as a future husband.
14:24And that's a good thing.
14:26Because after a few months of casual dating, Leilani snoops on Juan's socials.
14:31And makes a startling discovery.
14:33Leilani found out that Juan, he has a whole wife in Texas.
14:36No, like, bye.
14:44To my understanding, Juan was not fully divorced, but in the process of getting a divorce with a woman that lived in Texas.
14:53So he, although not with this woman anymore, was maybe legally still with her.
14:59I do know that he did move back from Texas or come from Texas prior to them getting together.
15:06But we didn't know, you know, what's going on with most of these guys' lives.
15:10If they have another side chick on the side or five side chicks on the side, like, we didn't know that.
15:16It was never really anything, like, that we took seriously.
15:20She had talked to him a couple times about it, and Juan said it's not a big deal.
15:27But Leilani did, you know, vent to me multiple times about how she doesn't really trust him.
15:34But she wasn't looking for a serious relationship.
15:37The whole situation with the ex is messy in itself.
15:42I mean, he is messy.
15:43I just told Leilani, I love you and I care about you, but I don't think this is the right way.
15:49But who am I to tell you what to do? You're a grown woman.
15:55For now, Leilani is fine just going with the flow.
15:59But in October of 2021, roughly six months into their situationship,
16:04she finds out that not all Juan's exes live in Texas.
16:08It was kind of just like any other time, you know, she was just going to Sideshow with her friends, and Juan was there.
16:23She got in the car with Juan, and another one of our friends was in the driver's seat.
16:30She was sitting in the car with Juan, and some girl opened up the door,
16:36and was screaming, going off.
16:41She had told her to get the out, pulling on the door handle, and saying to get out the car.
16:48Leilani is not a physical fighter.
16:52She's never been that way.
16:54But she absolutely did not like screaming and yelling.
16:57I think it was, like, happening so fast. This girl was right in her face.
17:03You can't really predict, you know? Anyone can do anything.
17:08Leilani was like, who the is he talking to? We can really make this happen. We can squabble up, but you're not finna play with me in front of my friend.
17:23During that incident, it's to my understanding that Juan doesn't get involved.
17:29So it didn't seem like he had any input in that argument at all.
17:33The only reason no fight broke out or anything like that is because the guy that was driving was like, no, this is my car. Like, she can be in here. She's my friend, too. Like, it's my car.
17:52It wasn't even Juan's car. So that was the only reason why nothing escalated was because it kind of got shut down at that point.
18:02But that's also when it clicked in Leilani's mind.
18:08Oh, this is the same girl that I saw at a party, hit some girl in the head with the bottle.
18:14She didn't know her name at the time. But now we know it was Jessica.
18:18As in Jessica Quintanilla, that 24-year-old sideshow OG who's been casting shady eyes at Leilani and her crew since they stepped on the scene.
18:30I learned that there was a relationship between Jessica and Juan.
18:37And from my understanding, she was dating him before Leilani for less than a month off and on.
18:45They were not very serious at all. And every time her and Juan had a breakup, he's talking to other females, whether it's Leilani or anybody else.
18:55I just know that Leilani was kind of, like, that was really, like, weird. And why would she care?
19:05They're exes. And, like, you move on, you go on with life after that.
19:11Maybe Juan was Jessica's escape because he had the nice car and a status in the community.
19:18Juan had made a name for himself. He was a very well-known car guy.
19:22So I don't know if Jessica really did like him out of all the 30 million guys she was talking to at the time.
19:29I don't know. But jealousy thing, I guess, I'd see where it could come in, especially from older people.
19:35Girls like Jessica, it's like, how crazy and delusional are you? You feel me?
19:41Like, girl, please, there are seven billion men in this world, and you worried about this little old fish? Bye. No.
19:46That's when Leilani decides that the juice from Juan's status isn't worth the squeeze.
19:53After that situation, Leilani definitely wanted to keep her distance a little bit.
19:59But Juan isn't exactly used to being ignored.
20:02He definitely was contacting Leilani more than he usually would, asking how she's doing.
20:07Like, maybe he could see that she's kind of pulling away from him.
20:11And that made him want to pull more, realizing that she's not as interested as maybe she once was.
20:17I remember Leilani messaged me, saying, oh, I'm going to go to my friend Sarah's house for Halloween this weekend.
20:34And she was asking for a little bit of extra money to support her with her costumes.
20:40Leilani was definitely excited about Halloween.
20:43I wore this dress that had a skeleton on it, and then the night that we went out, she was like a SWAT or something like that.
20:55She had a SWAT outfit on.
21:00We had like a list of like ten parties we wanted to go to, and like one night, don't even know what the heck we were thinking.
21:08We met at this first party.
21:10Sarah and Leilani were with each other.
21:14Then we were there at the second house when Juan had showed up. He wasn't by himself. He showed up with somebody. I don't know who he was with. It was a taller guy.
21:25Damien Ponderous is Juan Pere Peralta's friend. They're inseparable. They're both active duty enlisted service members at Travis Air Force Base.
21:33And they consider each other best friends, so much so where Juan has Damien's name tattooed on him. I have a lot of close friends. Not one of their names is tattooed on me. So that's how close they are. Juan and Damien do everything together.
21:45So Juan and his friend showed up and me, Leilani, Sarah. We were already in our own little group together.
21:54We were drinking that night. When you're 19, you know, your hormones are also everywhere.
22:05After a while, she was like, okay, I'm gonna go leave with Juan. I'm gonna go get some . And I'm like, period, bitch. Like, you know, like, okay.
22:12Women are like men. Men are like women. Hate to say it, but, like, her intentions weren't going on boyfriend-girlfriend or, like, you know, it was just supposed to be, like, just a one-night thing again.
22:23I taught her have fun. Love you. Be safe. Let me know when you get there. And then, um, that was pretty much it.
22:32It was, like, 3 in the morning at the point. I was a little worried because Juan lives in Fairfield, and that's about 45 minutes from my house.
22:42But I had her location, so, you know, I wasn't too worried when she had left in their car.
22:49She texted me when she got there that everything is good.
22:58She texted me again towards the morning, just saying that she can't sleep.
23:03She was kind of over it being with him at that point.
23:06She had Snapchatted me, the picture of him next to her.
23:08And she's like, okay, I just want to leave. Like, I kind of want to wake him up and have him take me home.
23:15I was like, well, then wake him up so that you can come over and he can drop you off.
23:21And at that point, she told me, okay, well, I'm going to try to go to sleep.
23:248.30 in the morning. It was, like, an hour or a half or something since we last talked.
23:41I was asleep at this point, and she had FaceTimed me.
23:47I just heard arguing on the phone.
23:50And she was, like, whispering on the phone with me, saying that some girl was there.
23:57And I was like, what? What are you talking about? Like, who?
24:01I kept trying to ask her questions and ask her things.
24:04And she wasn't saying anything.
24:06And it sounded like she was, like, hiding or something.
24:10I remember she said, I'll call you back.
24:13And it just hung up fast.
24:17Something is not right.
24:19I messaged Leelani in the morning.
24:31And she hadn't messaged me yet.
24:33And I figured, oh, she must have gotten really tired or had a lot of fun that night.
24:40And I want to say I started to kind of wonder a little bit, maybe around 11, 12 o'clock.
24:45Normally, by then, it doesn't matter how late she was up the night before.
24:50She would still find a way to get up.
24:52Around 1 o'clock, 1.30, I messaged her, finally, thinking, okay, it's late enough.
24:58Didn't hear from her.
25:00This isn't like her.
25:02Leelani was always super communicative.
25:05I was able to get all the numbers within the last 24, 48 hours that she was in communication with.
25:15Halloween, I woke up to Violet, Leelani's mom.
25:20Like, have you heard from Leelani? I seen you in the last text messages.
25:23That's when I got that sick feeling in my stomach.
25:26Something was off.
25:28Then I texted her back and I was like, I haven't.
25:32Her mom also sent me a text.
25:36She's like, Leelani's missing, this and that.
25:38I'm like, what the heck?
25:39Like, why would my best friend be missing?
25:41Her mom's saying that she's not responding.
25:46Her location is off.
25:48No one's texts are going through.
25:50And so we're all freaking out.
25:54Everything was running through my head.
25:56Did her phone die?
25:57Did she run away?
25:59Did she get arrested?
26:00Like, I don't know.
26:02I messaged every single one of them with, do you know where Leelani is? You're the last person she talked to.
26:13Everybody messaged me back except for one number.
26:16And it turned out to be the number of the person that she was spending the night with.
26:19I don't remember who I heard it from exactly, but there were several people that were trying to get a hold of Juan and they couldn't.
26:34So he was missing too.
26:36When Leelani's mom reaches Sarah, she tells her all about their FaceTime earlier that morning.
26:45I felt responsible that I saw her last.
26:48Her car is still at my house.
26:51Like, her bags are still at my house.
26:53Everything that she brought for the weekend that we were supposed to spend together is still at my house.
26:58And then coming like 4pm, the sun's going down.
27:03Now I'm just like, for sure, something's wrong.
27:06And after speaking with Leelani's mom, Sarah realizes it's time to take action.
27:12And that's when I call the police to do a missing persons report on her.
27:17I got called out to investigate on October 31st on Halloween in the afternoon.
27:33I was told that there was a missing persons case that had some level of suspicion to it.
27:40I begin by contacting the last known people that the person was with.
27:44Sarah knows that Leelani ended up at Juan's house.
27:49There's no question about that.
27:51I got his address.
27:52I called back the police to give him the address of his house.
27:57Juan lives off base.
27:59He lives in a house that's not affiliated in the military.
28:03So I have detectives at the house.
28:07No one answers.
28:09But from outside, police get a big whiff of probable cause.
28:15The detectives, they smell bleach.
28:17It was overpowering.
28:19When they enter Juan's house, they see what they believe to be as blood in the hallway leading up to the bedroom,
28:26as well as the stairs leading to the garage.
28:31They see a hole in the wall in the bedroom that belongs to Juan.
28:35So based off the evidence that was seen even to the naked eye by detectives, it was the assumption that Juan's better.
28:44It was a crime scene.
28:46During that time, I was calling Juan and Leelani and leaving voicemails.
28:55We were flagging license plates.
28:57We were trying to backtrack video cameras in the city, making countless phone calls to anybody and everybody we could.
29:05As detectives work frantically to track down Juan and Leelani, her friends and family get more desperate by the minute.
29:13I'm making posts, pictures, videos that I had from us the night before what she was last seen and wearing in.
29:20I just kept posting, posting, posting.
29:23That's really all I can remember doing.
29:27And then just constantly checking in with Violet if we heard anything yet from anybody.
29:33I was on and off the phone with police literally all night calling them with anything I could find.
29:41I was obviously very nervous and scared trying to find her.
29:45I couldn't get any sleep.
29:59Leelani left that party with Juan and Damien, active duty airmen at the Travis Air Force Base.
30:05Damien lives on base, so that's where I went first because I knew the first human to human interaction I could have was with Damien Ponders.
30:15I speak to Damien, and as part of most missing persons cases, we asked, what were you guys doing?
30:23You know Leelani and Juan's location.
30:26Just your general questions.
30:28And...
30:34You could tell he was more than just nervous.
30:36He had something to say.
30:38And I even threw out there, even if they're dead, just let me know where they are.
30:41It's a question that I asked just to kind of see a reaction.
30:45And it was almost unbelievable what his reaction was.
30:48I've worked many missing persons cases, both on patrol and as a detective.
30:52Asking that question, I've never got that response.
30:55And...
30:57It made my heart sink.
31:07So, I'm sitting, speaking with Damien.
31:10He did a big gulp.
31:12His hands were just dripping sweat.
31:14I've never seen that.
31:16But I wasn't thinking he was going to say what ended up coming out in the case.
31:21The way Damien describes it is that that morning, Juan called him and asked him to go to a Walmart and pick up various cleaning supplies.
31:31And an air mattress.
31:33Because his mattress is going to be disposed of.
31:35And Damien isn't one to ever question Juan's orders.
31:40I don't know what Damien was thinking, but his allegiance with Juan is that when Juan needs something, I just do it.
31:50Damien goes to Walmart and buys the items that were requested.
31:55He eventually shows up back at the house.
31:57And that's where Damien learns the terrible truth of what happened that morning.
32:03Juan tells Damien that Leilani Beecham is dead, that she was killed, and that her body was removed from the house.
32:11It's now all hands on deck to track down Juan and find Leilani's body.
32:19Because Juan is a service member, I knew that his command can order him to come to base.
32:24So we worked with his command, and I was calling Juan and just trying to get him to come in.
32:31And through my voicemails and his command reaching out to him, they ordered him to come back to base.
32:37That's where Juan drives to the Traverse Air Force Base from wherever he was at.
32:44When I walked in the room, I don't know if maybe he saw my demeanor.
32:49Maybe there was a sense of confidence, but Juan knew that Damien told us what happened.
32:54And he essentially goes, I know you know everything, so I might as well tell the truth now.
33:02Juan states that that morning, Juan and Leilani are in bed.
33:07And it's at that time when Juan's ex-girlfriend shows up at the house.
33:11Juan then tells investigators that girl is the same one who confronted Leilani just a few weeks before.
33:17Sideshow OG, Jessica Quintanilla.
33:21Jessica enters the house.
33:23She lets herself in unannounced, goes up to Juan's room.
33:28Juan jumps out of the bed.
33:30This is when Leilani is in that FaceTime call with Sarah.
33:34There's a verbal argument that kind of goes on between Jessica and Juan.
33:40And that's when Leilani is discovered in the bed.
33:45Juan then says that Jessica leaves the room and then Jessica returns to the firearm.
33:51And shoots Leilani, beats him in the head.
33:58Following that, Jessica looks at Juan and says something to the effect of, you made me do this and you're gonna help me.
34:11Juan states that he was in fear that she just killed somebody and she can do it to him.
34:17According to Juan, this is when an armed and dangerous Jessica contacts her older brother, Marco Quintanilla, to help get rid of Leilani's body.
34:28They end up bringing Leilani's body downstairs through the garage into his car.
34:35After that, Leilani's body is driven to Monterey County.
34:39It's a few hours away, indisposed of by Juan and Jessica.
34:43So we put Juan in a patrol car and he led us to where Leilani was at.
34:53The area was remote and she was wrapped in a blanket that was on the bed.
35:00That's how we found her, was wrapped in that blanket.
35:03By this time, we had about a hundred people ready to start searching for her.
35:12I was ready to start printing out flyers.
35:15We were putting together a reward, whatever they needed.
35:17And then that's when the detective that was on the case updated us that Leilani was gone.
35:27And I think I was in utter shock, just in disbelief.
35:33I remember I couldn't feel my body.
35:37I was just utterly shattered and hurt.
35:40I was in so much pain.
35:42I lost all the love I had in me.
35:46I didn't know I was able to breathe.
35:49I was able to breathe.
36:00Her mom sent me a text.
36:04She told me she's gone.
36:08Sorry.
36:09It was just crazy.
36:16You know?
36:19It was crazy.
36:24I don't really know what else to say.
36:28I just kind of was like numb, I think.
36:33I didn't want to believe she was dead.
36:36It does something to the soul.
36:40After that, they told us that Juan was in custody, that Damien was in custody.
36:51And I remember asking the detective, well, where is Jessica?
36:57And he said, well, that's the problem.
36:59We don't know where she is.
37:01We know what kind of car she's possibly in because Juan told us she's driving a Cadillac CTS-V.
37:07The car has a very unique sound, muscle car sound.
37:12One of the other detectives is a car guy.
37:15So he knows what that vehicle is.
37:17Well, through a series of surveillance and driving around looking for her, that detective heard the vehicle.
37:24And he heard it.
37:27It drew his attention.
37:29And that vehicle passed him twice.
37:31So that was worth checking out.
37:33And it kind of led to finding Jessica.
37:35She is stopped, detained, and brought back to our investigations division.
37:44When I initially speak with Jessica in the interview rooms at the Fairfield PD, she doesn't really give off too much emotion at all.
37:52It just seemed very, very calm, alarmingly calm, I guess.
38:00When I confronted her with the follow-up statements that Juan and Damien provided, she stops talking.
38:05But I have probable cause to believe that she was involved in the killing of Leilani Beauchamp.
38:12Jessica is charged with first-degree murder that same day.
38:16Her brother, Marco, is also arrested and charged as an accessory after the fact.
38:21I think the obvious motive is jealousy and anger.
38:25Given that Leilani had a lot more to offer, maybe it made Jessica feel worthless.
38:30She felt like she had to retaliate in some way because she wasn't about to be better than her.
38:36If anything, I feel like Jessica was scared that Leilani was going to, like, take her place or something.
38:42You know, like in their little hierarchy of weak-ass shit.
38:46But Leilani is just a genuine, beautiful soul.
38:52She's just that girl, and Jessica wanted to be that girl.
38:55Like, be for real, girl. Like, bye.
38:58I think she's just one bitter, evil bitch.
39:04In November of 2024, Jessica and Marco Quintanilla stand trial for Leilani's murder,
39:10where Jessica is found guilty and sentenced to 25 years to life.
39:16Her brother, Marco, is sentenced to four years.
39:19I think there's always going to be that sense of there's no such thing as true justice.
39:25And what was interesting was I was prepared to be angry, Jessica and Marco.
39:30I was prepared to hate them, but I felt nothing.
39:36For Jessica, it was almost as if I just was looking straight through her.
39:41It didn't feel like she was an actual person.
39:45It was impossible to have any kind of direct anger towards her.
39:50Juan and Damien are both given immunity and released in exchange for their statements.
39:57Really, the immunity part, that was a tactic that we had to use to get his statement in to the trial
40:05to get the conviction of Jessica Quintanilla and otherwise fine justice for Leilani Beecham.
40:11Although Juan has been discharged from the Air Force under, quote,
40:15less than favorable conditions, he faces no charges for anything related to the crime.
40:21So it's just a disgusting feeling all the way around.
40:26I think Juan is a lowlife piece of crap, and my friend is gone because of him.
40:33This is the worst pain I think anybody can actually endure.
40:43But it's amazing what you can live through.
40:46Leilani talked about wanting to get into real estate.
40:50And after Leilani's passing, my husband decided he was going to get his broker's license
40:56and fulfill Leilani's dream to own her own real estate company.
41:03It was only like three or four months after her passing.
41:06He studied so hard, and he passed it for her.
41:10She was just more than just my daughter.
41:19She probably encouraged me as much as I encouraged her.
41:22For Leilani, we have to live our lives twice as much.
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