Chapter 107: The Good Die Young-The Murder of Mia Zapata

Among the legendary singers of the 27 Club who captivated the world with their music and lyrics, is a woman who is not as well known—one whose powerful voice and thought-provoking lyrics set her apart from the men dominating the industry. Mia Zapata and her band, The Gits, were on the verge of becoming a household name in Seattle's grunge and punk rock scene when everything was ripped away one night in July of 1993. Mia Zapata's violent murder shocked Seattle as a whole. Who would want to kill a woman, with no enemies, who was so dynamic, vibrant, and creative, and how did they get away with murder for a decade?

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ABOUT — The Gits. (n.d.). The Gits. https://www.thegits.com/aboutAbout Antioch - Antioch College. (2025, May 23). Antioch College. https://antiochcollege.edu/about/Aug 22, 1993, page 143 - The Plain Dealer at Newspapers.com. (n.d.). Newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1070983951/?match=1&terms=mia%20zapataClark, S. J. (1993, July 16). Capital Hill woman found strangled. Seattle Gay News, 1.Dec 20, 1993, page 58 - The Gazette at Newspapers.com. (n.d.). Newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/424249475/?match=1&terms=mia%20zapataGreen, P., & Green, P. (2024, October 11). The Life of Mia Zapata and Love After Tragedy - Gen X Watch. Gen X Watch - Stories, Rants, and Being Left Alone. https://www.genxwatch.com/the-life-of-mia-zapata-and-love-after-tragedy/Haring, B. (2021, May 31). Killer of Mia Zapata, influential Seattle punk musician, dies in prison. Deadline. https://deadline.com/2021/05/killer-mia-zapata-seattle-punk-musician-dies-in-prison-1234762659/Holding on to Mia’s magic -- Singer’s killing leaves grief in the 2 worlds she lived in. (1993, August 26). The Seattle Times. https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19930826/1717883/holding-on-to-mias-magic----singers-killing-leaves-grief-in-the-2-worlds-she-lived-inMendez, S. (2025, February 3). Mia Zapata of The Gits is still influential 30 years after her death - Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2025-01-31/mia-zapata-the-gits-is-still-influential-30-years-after-her-deathMia zapata. (n.d.). The Gits. https://web.archive.org/web/20130406042509/http://thegits.com/?page_id=410Pian Chan, S. (2009, January 30). Singer’s killer sentenced to 36 years in prison again. The Seattle Times. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/singers-killer-sentenced-to-36-years-in-prison-again/Sheehy, P. (1993, August 1). Mia Zapata: 1965-1993. The Rocket, 9.STATE V. MEZQUIA (2005). (2005). In Case Law (No. 54246-0–I). Court of Appeals of Washington,Division 1. https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/wa-court-of-appeals/1329872.htmlStone, R. (2019, December 8). The 27 Club: A Brief History. Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-lists/the-27-club-a-brief-history-17853/jeremy-michael-ward-25302/Throwaway style: on the gits and what it means to puke the blues. (n.d.). https://www.kexp.org/read/2025/1/30/throwaway-style-the-gits-mia-zapata-historical-essay/Unsolved Mysteries. (2020, September 7). Mia Zapata - Unsolved Mysteries. https://unsolved.com/gallery/mia-zapata/Who murdered Mia Zapata? -- No arrests, few clues 5 years after slaying. (1998, August 23). The Seattle Times. https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19980823/2768095/who-murdered-mia-zapata----no-arrests-few-clues-5-years-after-slaying

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Every story has a beginning, but not everyone has an ending.
In the shadows of headlines and buried police reports lay
the voices of the missing, the murdered, and the forgotten,
waiting to be heard and have their stories told. This
is The Book of the Dead, a true crime podcast

(00:21):
where we remember forgotten victims of heinous crimes, reopen cold cases,
re visit haunting disappearances, and uncover the truths buried beneath
the years of silence. I'm your host, Courtney Liso, and
every week we turn to another chapter, one victim, one mystery,

(00:43):
one step closer to justice. Brought to you by Darkast
Network in Deep Podcasts with a Twist. Hello, Hello, Welcome

(01:11):
to the next chapter in the Book of the Dead.
The story I have for you today is that of
a number of the twenty seven Club. Many of you
are probably familiar with this club, which no one truly
wants to be a part of, but consists primarily of
musicians as well as actors and other creatives, who have

(01:33):
all lost their lives at the age of twenty seven.
Some say that those in the twenty seven Club were
fated to die by this age, whether because they were
special or remarkable in some way, or because their deaths
at twenty seven meant that they had accomplished some predetermined
destiny and their purposes had been fulfilled. While many of

(01:57):
these musicians died by their own hands in freak accidents
or after years of struggling with substance use disorders, some
deaths were more sinister. The case I have for you
is of one such death. Among the musical royalty of
the twenty seven Club, comprised of legends such as Jimmy Hendrix,

(02:19):
Kirk Copein, Janis Joplin, and Amy Winehouse. Is a woman
who is making waves in Seattle's punk, rock and grunge
scene with hurrah and heartbreaking lyrics and a voice that
some say rival to the greats whose life was cut
short in the most brutal of ways. This is the
murder of Miya Zapata. Mia Catherine Zappato was born in Chicago, Illinois,

(02:44):
on August twenty fifth, nineteen sixty five, to Richard and
Donna Zapata. She was the youngest of three children. She
had an older sister named Catherine and a brother Eric.
Born into an affluent family, Donna was a television executive
and her father was a music executive. She grew up
in an upper middle class area of Louisville, Kentucky, called

(03:07):
Douglas Hills. According to an article for the Seattle Times,
while Mia grew up enjoying the comforts that her family's
money provided her, such as good schools, regular vacations, and
regular trips to New York. After her parents' divorce, her
father spoke of how Mia traversed two different worlds. Quote

(03:27):
she lived on two different sides of the street, the
straight side one parochial schools, affluent family, and tennis clubs,
but when she crossed the street, material things didn't mean
anything to her. Mia grew up wildly creative and very
assured of who she was as a person. By nine,
she had learned how to play both the guitar and

(03:48):
the piano, and she had a love of poetry and
would journal regularly about all of her thoughts and ideas.
She also loved to sing, a habit that was lovingly
indulged by her siblings, who would accompany her songs with
air guitar, and her sister would set the mood with flashlights.
Mia was also a talented artist, creating emotionally moving works

(04:12):
that expressed how wild and complex her mind and heart were.
As a child. According to an article for The Plain Dealer,
Mia showed signs of having dyslexia, and she struggled with
reading and writing, instead finding comfort in the arts. She
would go off on her own at summer camp to
work on her writing or sketching, and as she got
older and started looking at colleges, she found a home

(04:34):
at Antioch College when a professor, after she had confessed
her struggles with dyslexia, told her, quote not to worry.
People with learning disabilities tend to compensate in other ways.
They become very creative. In the eighties, after high school,
Mia attended the Liberal Arts College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Aniok College, according to their website, quote, prepares students to

(04:57):
live lives of intention, the agency to design their education,
to own that education, to govern their college, to collaborate
with their faculty, and extend their classroom learning into the
real world. So it was a perfect place of learning
from Mia, who was all about expressing her creativity and
pushing the boundaries of her friends, who she knew were

(05:20):
capable of doing more. Her friend Matt Dresdner told the
La Times that before he met her, he was both
inspired and intimidated by Mia. While he was nervous to
talk to her, she took the initiative and approached him,
calling him out about his quote lack of initiative as
a painter. He said, quote she called me out for

(05:43):
half asking it, and from there she's like, tomorrow, you're
coming down to the art building with me, and you're
going to pain she challenged me. From that moment on,
they were friends, and Dresner was vocal about being in
awe of MEA's creative spirit. Then he heard her sing
an open mic night, and he was blown away. He said, quote,

(06:05):
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was just
so transfixed by her, her voice and her presence. It
brought me to tears. She was so resonant and personal,
and at that point I was like, God, we got
to figure out how to start a band, and in
nineteen eighty six they did. Originally called in homage to

(06:26):
Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Sniveling Little Rat Faced Gits,
before shortening their name to just the Gets. The band
was comprised of Mia as lead singer, Matt as the bassist,
Andy Kessler as the guitarist and Steve Moriarty as the
drummer of Mia and Her Voice. Steve told The Rocket quote,
Mia was an immensely talented vocalist. She could have sung jazz, blues, country,

(06:52):
and western anything, but she chose punk rock because it
fit her passionate temperament. And Mia was a passionate person.
She was a proud feminist and not shy about speaking
up about things she believed in. She was also something
of an anomaly in a scene dominated by bands fronted
by white men Nirvana, Pearl, jam Alison Chains and the like,

(07:15):
because not only was me an unapologetically outspoken woman, but
she was a proud Mexican American making waves in the industry.
In the beginning, while things were new, the bands played
a few shows on and off, but things changed when
the group, lured by the cheaper cost of living and
the fact that it was as far away from Ohio

(07:36):
as they could get, moved to Seattle in nineteen eighty nine,
accompanied by MIA's best friend Maria Mapra, and the band
really grew together, finding their sound and their voice. Andy
Kessler said, quote, The thing that's interesting is that the
chemistry and power of it was there right away, and
it did last from then until the end. We played

(07:58):
together sporadically during those cos days, but it was when
we moved to Seattle that I feel like we really
became a band. The Gets released three EPs from nineteen
ninety to nineteen ninety one, playing everywhere from dive bars
to university districts, where MIA's raw vocals captivated the audience
just as much as her presence on stage. Decked out

(08:18):
in the uniform of the punkin grunge scene, Doc Martin's tattoos,
ripped jeans and shirts, and hair matted and braided, dyed
all sorts of colors, but usually blonde, and decorated with
metal rings that once caused her hair to rust, to
which her sister lovingly said Mia probably liked. While MIA's
lyrics conveyed so many strong emotions like anger and rage,

(08:42):
she was also incredibly sentimental and much of her personality
was incredibly complex and not something she fully showed to everybody.
Her sister, Kristen said, quote, there is a side of Mia,
a quality about Mia that nobody could ever touch or know,
Like the side of Mia that lovingly kept the bouquet

(09:03):
she had held at Kristen's wedding, displaying the dried flowers
in her bedroom as a reminder of that day. She
was also very shy and would oftentimes take time for
herself in the band's van after a show to write
or just to think. That's not to say, though, that
Mia didn't have her struggles. A friend of hers said, quote,

(09:23):
at times she drank a lot inside. I think she
was happy, but there was also a struggle of day
to day life, her art, the band, and her painting,
how to reach people, how to communicate In Seattle, the
group worked at various bars and restaurants to make ends meet,
and built a small but loyal fan base that grew

(09:45):
with each show they played as the audience connected with
the words that Mia had written. Andy Kessler told The
Rocket quote, Mia was naturally gifted with words and people.
I always thought since we first began playing together that
she was the lyricist in punk rock. Of his daughter's writing,
Richard said, quote, she absorbed emotion from the people who

(10:07):
confided in her. Her gift was to draw the pain
or joy that others were feeling and convert them into
poems and songs. As their presence started to grow, the
Gifts built a small network of fellow bands they would
practice with at their home in Capitol Hill, transforming the
basement into the Rat House, a pseudo clubhouse where all
of their friends and fellow bandmates were welcome, some even

(10:30):
having mail forwarded there when they didn't have a permanent address.
Ens Mia was at the center of creating this sense
of Camarderie among everyone. Valerie Agnew, the Drammer for seven
Year Bitch, said, amya quote, she was like nobody I've
ever met before. She was so sincere. She was a
huge influence on me and everybody in my band. In

(10:53):
nineteen ninety, according to k e XP, the Gifts landed
a spot opening for Nirvana, who themselves were on the
verge of catapulting into stardom, and it led to the
booking of US and European tours, as well as the
recording of their album Frenching the Bully. Fame was never
the goal though, especially for Mia. In fact, according to

(11:14):
her friends, her goal was to one day own a
cabin in the woods with an old jeep and a
sheep dog. However, it was hard to ignore the allure
of success that came with their growing presence on the
music scene. By the spring of nineteen ninety three, the
Gifts as a whole were setting their sites ungrowing in
the industry. They had hired a professional manager, moved out

(11:37):
of the rat House, and some even quit their jobs
to focus on the music. Mia even started taking boys
lessons to fine tune her vocals and cut back on
alcohol to preserve her voice during their summer tour. By
June of nineteen ninety three, they were even in talks
with Tim Summer of Atlantic Records to get signed and

(11:57):
were excited for what the future would be for the band.
But everything changed four weeks later. On July sixth, nineteen
ninety three, the day before the Gets were to fly
out to New York to start another tour, Mia was
twenty seven years old and she met up with her father,
who had driven up from Yakima, where he was living,
to see her. They went to lunch at a Thai restaurant,

(12:20):
strolled over to Tower Records, and took a trip to
the Seattle Art Museum. Around three pm, she came back
to the home she was now living in in Rainier Valley,
did some laundry and walked the dog before heading over
to Winston Apartments in Capitol Hill at six point thirty
to rehearse with her boyfriend, Robert Jenkins's band, until about
eight thirty, when she headed to the Comet Tavern. The

(12:44):
Comet Tavern was a regular spot for the Gits and
their friends to hang out. That night, according to various sources,
Mia drank a lot, although no one is clear on
what the reason was for her to fall off the
wagon after not drinking for the last couple of weeks.
According to The Seattle Times, some thought it was because
she was angry with her boyfriend and wanted to break

(13:06):
up with him or had already done so, and others
said she was celebrating the start of tour. Some even
thought she was drinking to more in the one year
anniversary of the death of Stephanie's Sargent, a guitarist for
the Seven Year Bitch. At around midnight, Mia headed back
to the Winston Apartments from the Common Tavern to talk
to her boyfriend, and by all accounts, she was agitated

(13:30):
and really wanted to speak with him, but he wasn't
in the studio, so she headed up to the second
floor to see her friend's Tercy Victoria Kenley, who went
by the nickname TV. According to the Seattle Times, TV
said that Mia was upset and distracted, mumbling under her
breath about something, and at one point Mia abruptly left

(13:51):
TV's apartment, before returning a few minutes later with an apology.
TV told Mia to stay at her apartment for the night,
but Mia declined, saying and she was going to get
a cab and go home, even though Mia was pretty
vocal about not liking caps, she'd rather walk. Mia left
TV's apartment at around two am, and he'd be kept

(14:12):
watch as Mia headed down the stairs to the exit.
The next hour and twenty minutes of MIA's night, though,
are a bit of a mystery. There are a few
different directions Miya could have headed that night. She could
have walked a few blocks north to her friend Maria
Mobbers home. She could have headed to a Texico station
she was known to frequent two blocks west. Mia could

(14:34):
have gone east towards the restaurant she worked at, or
she could have gone south to her home. But wherever
Mia was headed, she never made it, according to court records.
At about three thirty am, the Seattle Fire Department was
alerted by a sex worker that a woman was lying
on the pavement in a dead end street at twenty
fourth Avenue South between South Yesler and South Washington Street.

(14:58):
When paramedics arrived, they found Mia Zapata lying on her back,
her feet crossed at the ankles and her arms spread
wide in a crucifixion post. The sweatshirt she had been
wearing was pushed up under her arms and the hood
was tied around her face and knotted under her throat.
Her jeans were pushed down her legs and stepped in
the pocket, were her underwear, wallet and ripped bral Paramedics

(15:22):
attempted to resuscitate her, but Mia was pronounced dead shortly
after their arrival. At the autopsy, it was determined that
Mia had been violently raped, sustaining internal injuries, and the
medical examiner also believed she had been beaten, as he
had found multiple injuries externally as well. Marks on her
breasts were believed to have been caused by being bitten,

(15:44):
so the area was swabbed for saliva and vaginal swaps
were taken, but no other DNA evidence was found. It
was determined that her cause of death was strangulation caused
by the ties to her sweatshirt being wrapped so tightly
around her throat. During the initial investigation, police struggled with
a lack of evidence, as they believed that Mia had

(16:05):
not died in the alley where she was found. Rather,
they believed that she had been killed elsewhere and her
body had been moved. The problem was that after she
left TV's apartment, no one knew where she had gone.
Homicide Detective Al Lima told the Plaine Dealer quote two
to three twenty am, that seems to be the mystery hour.

(16:27):
We've gotten some tips, but nobody has called us and
said we saw her get into a car. Now. Police
did talk to cabbies that were out that night, but
no one remembered picking up anyone that matched MIA's description,
and her friends didn't believe she would get into a
stranger's car. It wasn't something she typically did. As news
and MIA's murder broke, her friends and her family were devastated,

(16:50):
and things changed in Seattle very quickly. As a result,
her female friends started a self defense group called Home
Alive that was active for over fifteen years to teach
women how to keep themselves safe, and a couple of
weeks after her murder. A benefit was set up with
Seattle's rising stars Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden, among others,

(17:12):
performing to raise seventy thousand dollars to fund the hiring
of a private investigator named Leah Heron to work MEA's case.
The music scene in Seattle as a whole quickly changed
as well. Sez Records owner Daniel House said quote, it
was innocent's lost. The brutal way she was killed changed
the fabric of the community. We could no longer proceed

(17:34):
with the same openness having that person, the killer, still
walking around. Maybe he's the guy at the bar, maybe
he's summoned at your own party. That changes the way
you look at the world. People haven't recovered from it.
MIA's friends and family also really struggled with the fact
that Mia was the last person they ever thought would

(17:55):
be approached in any antagonistic way. She was feisty and
not afraid to speak up, and they knew she could
and would stand up to anybody if need be. Victoria Agnew,
who helped found Home Alive, told the Montreal Gazette quote,
that's the thing that's so hard for me to get.
She was street wise, very tough, very experienced. Had she

(18:20):
had known some basic self defense maneuvers, maybe she'd still
be alive. While police initially thought me As death was
possibly drag or sex work related, once they realized who
she was, they looked at her boyfriend as a suspect.
Robert was older than her and known to have a
mean streak, but he was quickly cleared. Not only did

(18:42):
he have a solid alibi, he cooperated fully with the police,
taking two polygraph tests which he passed, as well as
volunteering fingerprints and DNA samples and hair. Lee Heron told
the Seattle Times quote he was genuinely heartbroken after me
as death, and he was the most cooperative witness you
could ask for. With Robert being cleared, though police had

(19:06):
no other suspects to turn to, Mia had no known enemies,
was well liked, and they couldn't find any witnesses that
could place her anywhere after two am. The investigation hit
a dead end very quickly because there were so many
possibilities as to what could have happened. MIA's case grew
cold very quickly, with nothing for police to go on

(19:28):
and very little evidence that could point them in any direction.
As the years passed, her father made regular trips to Seattle,
walking every path he could think of that Mia could
have taken on the night she died, in the hopes
that eventually he would see or find something that would
give him an answer as to who killed his daughter,

(19:49):
or simply what could have happened in that mystery hour
before she died. He said, quote, there are a hundred
ways of getting to where her body was found. Sometimes
I'll take what I think was the root she took.
Other times I'll try a different route to see if
it fits into the scheme of things I want to understand.
It's a pilgrimage for me. I guess I don't know.

(20:11):
Maybe I think by doing this, I'll figure out what happened.
As the years passed, the remaining members of the Gets
continued to play benefits to continue funding the Private Investigator,
and even recorded an album with Jon Jette in nineteen
ninety five called Evil Stick, and went on tour with
her for another series of benefit concerts. MIA's story was

(20:32):
also featured in Rolling Stone and on MTV, which, had
this happened while Mia had been living, would have been
a huge deal to her and the band. MIA's friends
honored hers while in their own way with their own music,
like the Seven Year Bitch's nineteen ninety four album Viva
Zapata that celebrates me A's life as well as making

(20:52):
direct call outs to her murder and vigilante justice. Everyone
in MIA's circle, her family and friends continuously found ways
to honor her and were fiercely protective of her image,
especially when rumor circulated about her death being related to drugs.
In two thousand and one, eight years after MIA's murder,

(21:14):
the DNA samples that were taken at her autopsy were
submitted to the Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory for analysis,
and two unique DNA profiles were obtained from the swabs
from MIA's breasts, MIA's DNA and saliva from an unknown mail.
This was the only DNA able to be extracted from

(21:36):
any of the samples. In June of two thousand and two,
this profile was submitted to the National DNA Database in
the hopes that there would be a match, but police
got no hits. However, six months later, in December, the
Washington State Patrol was notified that they had a match

(21:57):
the DNA sample taken from me as a pot as
by body belonged to a man named Jezus Miskia, and
he was currently on probation in Florida for a felony
conviction for possession of burglary tools. As part of the
conditions of his probation, he had to submit cheek swab samples.
Upon looking into him, police learned that Mischilla was living

(22:19):
in Seattle with an unnamed woman from nineteen ninety two
to nineteen ninety four, a mile and a half from
where MIA's body had been found. In fact, police learned
that on the night of the murder, the woman that
Misquillo was living with was out of town. On January tenth,
two thousand and three, Miskillo was arrested in Miami, and

(22:40):
he claimed to police that he had not known of
or had any contact with Mia, sexual in nature or otherwise.
When her friends and bandmates were asked about Meskia, they
had never heard of him, and to their knowledge, Mia
had not known him either. Based on the DNA evidence,
which was confirmed by blood analysis, and his proximity to

(23:04):
the crime scene at the time of MIA's murder, Mezgio
was charged with premeditated first degree murder and with first
degree felony murder based on first or second degree rape.
According to court records, After a month long trial, Jezeus
Meschio was found guilty of first degree felony murder and
sentenced to four hundred and forty months in prison or

(23:27):
thirty six years based on the aggravated circumstances of deliberate cruelty.
Now Meskia appeals this rolling in two thousand and five
based on a few different thanks. One, he argued that
he had evidence pointing to Robert Jenkins, MIA's boyfriend, as
being her killer. Mia was angry with Jenkins because he

(23:48):
was allegedly seeing another woman. She was vocal about her
anger towards him right before her death. Jenkins had allegedly
called MIA's home the next morning asking for her, and
when he was told she might be showering, he allegedly
responded that whoever was in the shower wasn't Mia, and
a friend of Mia said that Jenkins had been known

(24:09):
to quote go crazy, according to Mia, and had even
attacked her a few times. This was denied as a
reason by the court as there was no sufficient physical
evidence to support Robert being Nia's murderer. As there was
no proof that he had made any effort to see
Mia in the early hours of July seventh, nor was

(24:31):
there any identifiable motive for him to have killed her.
Mezkia also argued that the court denied him his right
to use this as a defense, but the court ruled
that since the evidence did not clearly connect Robert to
the murder, there was the lack of motive, as well
as the fact that there was no proof Mia had
contacted or attempted to contact Robert before her death, so

(24:53):
the decision was ruled as not being an abusive discretion.
Mezkia also attempted to have evidence introduced that pointed to
a man named Scott McFarlane as MIA's killer. He was
a cab driver who claimed to have had a relationship
with Mia and had made some alleged statements about the
murder after the fact. He had also been in the

(25:15):
area at the time of the murder, and the court
had ruled that this was admissible as there was sufficient
evidence to support McFarlane being the possible killer. But if
this was presented, the state was given permission to call
a rebuttal witness named Valentina de Seco, who had come
forward after the state had rested claiming to have been

(25:36):
assaulted by Meskia six months after MIA's murder. Valentina claimed
that while she hadn't reported the assault at the time,
when she saw his picture in the paper after his arrest,
she decided to come forward. Valentina reported that at around
four thirty am in January of nineteen ninety four, she

(25:57):
was leaving her apartment in downtown Seattle to go jo
when he approached her and hid her from behind, knocking
her to her knees. Now, Valentina did it away from Mescia,
but when she returned to her apartment soon after, she
saw him standing outside masturbating. Because she was to be
called as a rebuttal witness, the court ruled that she

(26:18):
could only be called if his defense raised the issue
of identity when presenting their evidence of Scott McFarland being
the perpetrator, so his defense decided against this to keep
Valentina's testimony from being used. Meschia argued that the court
erred in deciding this, and the court subsequently ruled that
because the evidence regarding Scott MacFarland was never presented, any

(26:41):
alleged error on their part was not preserved. For appeal.
Meskia also tried to argue that the chic swab was
it admissible due to being unlawfully obtained, but the court
ruled that the sample was obtained during a minimally intrusive
search and lawfully obtained, so the decision stood. Finally, Meschia
argued that the court's sentence of thirty six years, based

(27:04):
on the aggravated circumstances of exceptional cruelty, violated his sixth
Amendment right to a jury trial. He argued this under
Blakely v. Washington, which states, other than the fact of
a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for
a crime beyond the prescribed statutory minimum must be submitted
to a jury and proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The

(27:27):
court ruled the jury did not determine that the state
proved a factual basis for this sentence beyond a reasonable doubt,
and they ruled in favor of Meschia. His sentence was
reversed and the case was remanded for resentencing. According to
the Seattle Times, though, when Meskia went back to trial
in two thousand and nine, he waived his right to

(27:47):
have his case heard by a jury, much to the
confusion of his attorney, George Eppler, because he waved his right.
This allowed King County Superior Court Judge Sharon Armstrong to
rein in state the original sentence of thirty six years
in prison for the murder of MIAs Apata, much to
the relief of her friends and family. So he really

(28:11):
wasted his time going through the appeal process. Had he
not raived his right, it was likely he would have
been sentenced to eighteen to twenty six years, as was
the standard sentence for a crime of this nature. However,
Yezeus Meskia did not serve his full thirty six years.
In twenty twenty one, at the age of sixty six,

(28:32):
Meskia died in prison of unknown causes. In the years
since her death, MIA's life and legacy have been immortalized
by those who knew and loved her. Steve Moriarty especially
has been vocal about urging people to focus on who
Mia was and not what happened to her. He wrote
in his book miyaz Apata and the Gets, a Story

(28:54):
of Art, Rock and Revolution. Quote. If one does an
Internet search today for the Gets or Mia z Apata,
information about her murder, the investigation to find the murderer,
and the conviction of him ten years later predominate the results.
The music, the lyrics, the people involved in creating the
music are secondary or absent Altogether, this cannot stand. His

(29:18):
hope with the book was that people would get to
know Mia as she was, for her intelligence, wit, powerful
raw blues tinged voice, and the lyrics she poured every
bit of her heart into writing. In twenty twenty four,
the gets first album, Frenching the Bully Ends. Their second album,
ent Her The Conquering Chicken, that was finished after MIA's

(29:38):
death using her raw vocals, were remastered and they are fantastic.
In another universe, Mia and the rest of the Gifts
would very likely have been touring with the greats and
would have been a household name. And I urge you
to listen to their music and hear how dynamic Mia
was and not focus on how tragically short her life

(30:01):
ended up. Being. As always, I thank you so much
for listening, and I hope you have a wonderful week,
and I will see you in the next chapter of
the Book of the Dead. Bye, guys. Another page closed,
But the story isn't over for the families left behind.

(30:24):
The pain doesn't end when the headline's fade, and for
the victims, we owe them more than silence. For our
on solved cases. If you have any information, please reach
out to local authorities or visit our show notes for
links and resources. Someone out there knows something, Maybe it's you.

(30:45):
Thank you for listening to the Book of the Dead.
If this story moved or spoke to you in some way,
talk about it, share it, keep their names alive. Until
next time, I'm Courtney Liso. Stay safe, stay curious, and
stay vigilant, and remember the dead may be gone, but

(31:07):
their stories will not be forgotten.