Two young women were gunned down near downtown Napa in April 2024 after they allegedly brought a knife to a fight with another woman, and the legal proceedings against two suspects in the case were just paused.
We're getting a small update in the April 2024 double homicide that left 19-year-old Aileen Villasenor of Rohnert Park and 17-year-old Sasha Mufich of Napa both dead. As we learned at the time of the killings, three people were arrested for the double murder: John Nicholson Jr., then 22; Jessica Whitten, then 19; and Judith Adolph, then 19. Whitten and Adolph are both from Santa Rosa, and Nicholson is from Vallejo.
On April 13, 2024, the four young women were heard arguing on the 400 block of Riverside Drive, in the Napa Abajo neighborhood, which is across the Napa River and a few blocks south of the Napa Valley Expo. Investigators say that Villasenor and Mufich had come to the area with the three others, and Adolph allegedly planned to fight one of them.
As Bay Area News Group reports via Napa police, after the altercation began between Adolph and at least one of the other women, either Villasenor or Mufich pulled out a knife and stabbed Adolph. At that point, Nicholson reportedly put on a mask and chased the victims down the street, shooting both of them. He then allegedly hopped in a car with Whitten, who drove them away.
All three have remained in custody, and Adolph pleaded no contest in March to two counts of assault with a semiautomatic rifle and one count of being an accessory, in exchange for a lighter sentence, which she has not yet been given, and she reportedly agreed to testify for the prosecution.
But now, Adolph's credibility is being questioned by defense attorneys. And as Bay Area News Group reports, a judge in the case has paused the latest evidentiary hearing as lawyers review hundreds of hours of jail phone calls between Adolph and others. It's unclear what has been said in these phone calls, but it's clear that defense attorneys want to discredit Adolph, given that she would be a star witness for the prosecution.
We won't know until the hearing recommences in April what other evidence the prosecution may have, but we know that surveillance video from the area helped investigators to identify the suspects. Two other witnesses who appeared in court Monday were told to return in April, the news group notes.
It's unclear when Nicholson and Whitten will ultimately face trial.
Adolph faces up to nine years in prison for her part in the killings.
Previously: Three Arrests Made In Shooting of Two Teens In Napa
Top image via Google Street View
