Karla Kuhl

Background

Karla Kuhl was an El Sobrante resident. She was 36 at the time of sentencing and had been charged with murder in July 2012. She was 35 at the time of being charged in July 2012.

Patricia Medeiros was 68 years old when she was killed.

The offence

Kuhl killed Patricia Medeiros by smothering her with a pillow. The killing involved asphyxiation and blunt force trauma. During the attack, Kuhl was chanting Biblical verses and prayers and claimed she was performing an exorcism to release an evil spirit from within Medeiros. After the killing, Kuhl went to a church, disrobed, and doused herself with holy water.

Kuhl had also propped a cross on the frame of her boyfriend's door before returning to tell him about the “exorcism.” Afterward, she fled to the church.

Police and prosecutors described a bizarre, religiously framed episode in which Kuhl claimed to be performing an exorcism.

Investigation

Sheriff’s deputies responded to an early morning medical call on June 5, 2012 and found Medeiros dead in her home.

An autopsy found that Medeiros died of blunt force trauma and asphyxiation.

Kuhl later gave an hours-long, drug-fueled confession in which she claimed she had performed an exorcism on Medeiros to rid her of “evil spirits.”

Kuhl was located on the same day at her El Sobrante apartment.

Arrest

Kuhl was arrested on suspicion of murder and taken to county jail in Martinez. She was being held at the West County Detention Facility in Richmond in lieu of $1 million bail. She was to appear in Superior Court.

Trial

Kuhl pleaded no contest to one count of voluntary manslaughter and waived half of her credits for jail time she had served since she had been charged with murder in July 2012.

The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office offered her a plea deal because of uncertainty whether it could prove murder given the limited force Kuhl applied and the circumstances surrounding the case.

Deputy District Attorney Simon O’Connell said:

“She appeared to have lacked an expressed intent to kill the victim based on the fact that she was in a meth-induced state of psychosis believing that she was performing an exorcism,” OConnell said.

The District Attorney’s Office described the killing as not a crime of malice. O’Connell said Kuhl smoked a heavy amount of methamphetamine in her boyfriend’s room before the killing.

Prosecutors said the killing occurred in the early morning hours of June 5, 2012, while Kuhl was visiting the house shared by her boyfriend and Medeiros in the 6000 block of North Arlington Avenue in San Pablo.

Sentencing

On November 6, 2013, Kuhl was sentenced to six years in state prison.

In court, Judge Clair Maier sentenced Kuhl after Kuhl pleaded no contest. Kuhl did not make a statement at sentencing and did not show any emotion standing in the partitioned area of the courtroom behind bars as the sentence was read.

Outcome

Kuhl was convicted of voluntary manslaughter based on her plea and was sentenced to six years in state prison on November 6, 2013.

Other details

Kuhl got into an argument with Medeiros, then went into a bedroom to smoke meth with her boyfriend. Later, the defendant and victim argued again, and witnesses said they heard Patricia’s voice become muffled toward the end of the squabble.

After Kuhl’s boyfriend and Medeiros’s nephew—who also lived at the house—heard muffled sounds and chants, they called police after finding Medeiros’s lifeless body on the living room couch covered by a blanket, a kitchen chair, a statue of the Virgin Mary, and a bible.

Kuhl fled after the boyfriend and another housemate heard the arguments and chants.

Witnesses described Kuhl chanting about “releasing demons” and propped a cross on the frame of her boyfriend’s door.

Victim’s nephew statements:

“I think of how my aunt felt as she was fighting for her life. My heart feels broken and confused,” said the victim's nephew, Don Severn, who has known Kuhl and her family for 15 years. “I hope you seek some help because the excuses that you gave, in my mind, are just not right.”

Another statement attributed to the victim’s nephew, Donald Severn:

“I think of how my aunt felt in those last minutes of her life,” the victim's nephew, Donald Severn, said. “I can feel the fear she felt as she fought for her life.”

Michele Trujillo, Medeiros’s close friend, said:

“I have lost my support system,” she said.

In July 2012, Contra Costa County prosecutor Harold Jewett stated:

“Whether it was ongoing between both of them and that man at the time is open to some question.”

Harold Jewett said:

On the attack and chanting: