A Vancouver man told the jury in his murder trial Monday he did not intend to fatally shoot his former girlfriend as they met in August 2021 in the parking lot of a central Vancouver gas station.
Austin J. Navarro, 32, described meeting with Inessa G. Kryshtal, 27, at the Chevron gas station at 4100 E. Fourth Plain Blvd., to retrieve his belongings from her. He spoke matter-of-factly during his testimony and did not appear to get emotional.
The testimony came during the second week of his trial in Clark County Superior Court. Navarro is charged with second-degree domestic violence murder and unlawful possession of a firearm.
Navarro said he was armed because of his former gang affiliation and knowledge that their meeting spot was frequented by gang members. He had the gun in his waistband, he said, while he leaned with his hands against the frame of Kryshtal’s passenger’s side door. He tried to convince her to unlock the door, he said, so he could get his clothes and ammunition she’d bought him.
Navarro told the jury, at one point, he glanced over the top of her car and noticed people he believed to be gang members across the street. He said he then pulled the gun from his waistband and held it while he leaned against the door with the barrel pointed toward the sky. When he told Kryshtal what he saw, she became scared, he said, and started to drive away.
At that point, Navarro said the gun slipped from his hand. As he tried to catch it, he said it must have fired.
Deputy Prosecutor Kelly Ryan previously told the jury the bullet struck Kryshtal in her upper right arm and punctured her heart and a lung.
Navarro said he didn’t realize it was his gun that fired; he left the scene, he said, out of fear the suspected gang members were shooting at him. He didn’t know Kryshtal had been killed until police told him so, he said.
The prosecutor questioned Navarro about messages he exchanged with Kryshtal arranging the meetup.
Ryan noted Navarro had messaged Kryshtal that he would wait for her at her house and later that she better be alone when they met at the gas station. Navarro told the jury he preferred to meet at her house because it’s safer, and it was typical for them to meet alone.
Ryan also pressed Navarro about telling a forensic psychologist he was getting angrier prior to the meetup. Navarro said he was irritated about having to meet in a place he felt unsafe.
“Because of the area we were in, I was afraid for my life,” Navarro said.
Following Navarro’s 20-minute testimony, the defense rested its case. Trial is scheduled to continue Tuesday with state’s rebuttal witnesses and attorneys’ closing arguments.
