Bush man guilty of hiding Jaume murderer

By Matthew Penix
St. Tammany News
Published on Friday, November 21, 2008 9:47 AM CST



A Bush man with “XXX loser” tattooed on his forehead earned a second strike this week after being found guilty of hiding the man who killed Mandeville mother Samantha Jaume in 2001.

Zlatico “Zack” Brujic, 33, was found guilty of obstruction of justice and accessory after the fact after just 50 minutes of jury deliberation Wednesday afternoon.

Jaume was shot to death on July 1, 2001, by Brujic’s friend, Dominic Robinson, as she unpacked groceries in her Mandeville home’s kitchen.

Robinson was convicted of first-degree murder earlier this year.

Brujic could face between 20 and 80 years for the obstruction charge, typically one that carries up to 40 years, because of a past felony conviction. He’s scheduled for sentencing Dec. 16 in front of 22nd Judicial District Court Judge Raymond Childress.

Brujic was accused of letting Robinson, from Waggaman, sleep at his girlfriend’s home after Robinson arrived there covered in blood, clutching a pistol and searching for a safe house.

Robinson was scheduled to meet with Brujic to sell him the gun used during the murder. Instead, he followed Jaume and her children from the Covington Wal-Mart on U.S. Highway 190, planning to steal her vehicle and shot her when a scuffle occurred.

After the shooting Robinson fled through the woods and to the home of Brujic’s girlfriend, Sarah Faison, testimony revealed in Brujic’s three-day trial.

In a taped statement to Detective Ralph Sachs, then of the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, Brujic seemed to implicate himself.

When Robinson arrived at the home, Brujic told Sachs that Robinson “said when he got tired of talking with her, he shot her,” according to the tape played for jurors this week. “He shot her in the head.”

“I saw he had blood on him,” and in his bloody hands Robinson clutched Jaume’s diamond wedding ring stolen from the scene, Brujic said on the tape.

Robinson then immediately tossed his bloody clothes in a garbage bag in the woods behind Faison’s house and took a shower, Brujic said on the tape. Brujic gave him a clean T-shirt and a pair of jeans, the tape revealed.

Later, the two “chilled out” before going to bed, he said on the tape.

The next morning, Faison drove Robinson and Brujic down Louisiana Highway 22 and stopped to trade the ring and gun, a nickel-plated .38-caliber handgun, for $100, or six bags worth of heroin. At one point before the trade, Robinson even tried to sell the gun to Brujic, he said on the tape.

Brujic is the second defendant implicated in the crime to be tried. Faison is also awaiting trial on obstruction of justice charges, and Jason Gainey, believed to be outside the house when Robinson killed Jaume, is scheduled to be tried on a charge of second-degree murder.

Robinson, who is serving a life sentence for an unrelated kidnapping and carjacking conviction, has yet to finish his death sentencing phase of his trial. A judge postponed that hearing as Hurricane Gustav approached. It’s unclear when it will be completed.


Comments

1 comment(s)

    R. SIDE wrote on Nov 24, 2008 10:29 AM:

    " The value of life means nothing to these thugs. I am not just talking about the lives these three have ruined. If any of us believe that the Jaumas are the only family these three cold blooded killers have victimized we are wrong. What type of person simply goes about their day after committing such a terible crime, a person who does not value life that is what type. This group have no more morals than the terrorists we are fighting overseas. Truth be told, thier own lives probably mean even less to them than those they have destroyed. "

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