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Jan 20, 2009 5:10 pm US/Pacific
Jury Selection Begins In Martinez Murder Trial
MARTINEZ (BCN) ―
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43-year-old Erhan Kayik (left) is accused of strangling to death his 16-year-old son Volkan in 2007.
Martinez Police Dept.
Jury selection began Tuesday for the trial of a Martinez man accused of strangling his 16-year-old son in 2007 and burying his body in a shallow grave on the side of a mountain in Sierra County.
Erhan Kayik, a 43-year-old Turkish rug salesman, has been charged with murder and inflicting corporal punishment on a child in connection with his son Volkan Kayik's death on July 4, 2007.
During a preliminary hearing in the case in May, Kayik's friend Omer Tutmaz said that Kayik had described to him how he killed Volkan.
According to Tutmaz, Kayik had been trying to talk to Volkan about his behavior and was "trying to straighten him out," but Volkan refused to talk.
Kayik continued to confront Volkan and at some point allegedly grabbed his son's neck and started squeezing it, Tutmaz said.
"Then the boy decided to answer," Tutmaz said. "He said, 'OK, Dad, I'm going to tell you.'"
Tutmaz said he asked Kayik what the boy said, but Kayik said it was already too late. He saw blood coming out of the Volkan's mouth.
"He said he was afraid of what would happen to him if he let the boy live," Tutmaz said. "He said the child is so little and he didn't need too much strength to do anything."
Volkan weighed only 90 to 100 pounds and was about 5 feet 2 inches tall, Tutmaz said. He had emigrated from Turkey two years before he was killed.
Kayik had reported the teen as a runaway to Martinez police on June 20, before the boy was killed, police said.
Police, who had received several reports in the past about Volkan running away, investigated the incident as a runaway case until Tutmaz contacted them.
Police re-interviewed Kayik several times and eventually persuaded him to lead them to the body, which they found in a remote area off state Highway 89 in Sierra County, police said.
Volkan appeared to have been buried in his underpants and tank top. Animals had scavenged some of his bones.
The Contra Costa County coroner's office matched the boy's dental records to the skull and confirmed that the bones were Volkan's remains, police said.
Kayik allegedly told Ted Todd, a senior inspector with the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office, that he had buried Volkan in the mountains because his son liked that type of place.
He also told Todd that it was a "safe place" and he wanted to be buried next to his son, Todd said.
Kayik had allegedly been abusive to his son in the past, including one incident in which somebody had seen him chasing Volkan through a park in Martinez with a steak knife, police said.
The county's Children and Family Services Department reported that they had been called to the home at least once to investigate a report that Kayik had hit his son.
The trial is being held in Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge John Kennedy's courtroom in Martinez. Jury selection is expected to last at least a week.
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