Lake Forest Man is Convicted of Murder

By PAUL ANDERSON
City News Service

SANTA ANA (CNS) - A 23-year-old man was convicted today of robbing and killing a Laguna Beach resident in his home four years ago.

Matthew Thomas Dragna of Lake Forest was found guilty of first-degree murder, and jurors found true a special circumstance allegation of killing during a robbery, in the Oct. 22, 2009, bludgeoning death of 40-year-old Damon Nicholson.

Co-defendant Jacob Anthony Quintanilla, 25, will be tried separately.

Nicholson's sister, Deanna Cosgrove said she felt relief when the verdict was announced.

"Honestly, it's surreal," Cosgrove said. "I guess I felt just relief, not happiness or elation."

Cosgrove said her brother was much beloved in Laguna Beach and that hundreds attended his memorial.

"We knew what a great guy he was, but we were somewhat humbled by the turnout for his memorial," she said. "He had a way of making everyone feel special."

Nicholson's friend of 20 years, Carla Bravo, said she still misses him.

"I want Damon here," she said. "I still want to be able to call him, but at least justice was done for him."

Dragna, who is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 28, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"We're obviously deeply disappointed," Dragna's attorney, Frank Bittar of the Orange County Public Defender's Office, said of the verdict, alleging the co-defendant is the lone killer.

Dragna met Nicholson the day before the killing when he went to the victim's Laguna Beach home with a friend and the three men had sex together, Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy said.

Dragna's friend lived in the same Lake Forest apartment complex as the defendant -- known as the Timbers Apartments. He was an occasional sex partner of Nicholson's, Murphy said.

Police were led to this friend when investigators got a DNA match on a condom wrapper left at Nicholson's home, Murphy said. They later found Dragna's DNA on a trash can lid at the victim's apartment, he said.

When police searched Dragna's room, they found computer software that Nicholson's friend had given him shortly before his death, Murphy said.

Dragna was staying at a drug rehab home when police first questioned him, Murphy said. The defendant falsely claimed he had only been to Laguna Beach twice with his sister, but only to the beach and never to anyone's home, Murphy said.

When police revealed they had found his DNA on a trash can lid in Nicholson's apartment, Dragna acknowledged he had sex with the victim the day before and brought his friend Quintanilla over to Nicholson's home the next day, Murphy said.

Dragna told police he waited in the car and "smoked a bowl" of marijuana while his friend went up to Nicholson's apartment, Murphy said. At some point when Dragna got out of the car to go see what was happening between the two, he saw Quintanilla coming down the stairs covered in blood holding bags containing "a bunch of stuff," the prosecutor said.

Quintanilla told him "it didn't go so good," Murphy said.

Investigators, however, suspect that Dragna and Quintanilla intentionally went to Nicholson's apartment to rob him and left him for dead, Murphy said. Dragna and Quintanilla tried to sell the victim's laptop computer and other belongings after the killing, the prosecutor said.

Dragna decided to rob Nicholson after he met him, Murphy said.

"He enlisted the help of Jacob Quintanilla. They took Jacob's bat and drove to Laguna Beach, and one of them hit Damon on the head hard enough to fracture his skull," Murphy told the jury.

Dragna, a high school dropout, was living with his mother and two sisters in the Timbers Apartments and struggling with substance abuse issues, Bittar said.

Nicholson tended to leave his sliding glass door partially ajar, allowing his sex partners to gain entrance, Bittar said. Nicholson would often wear a ski mask and engage in sex without conversation, Bittar said.

Dragna was nervous when police began questioning him, but eventually told investigators the truth, Bittar said.

When Dragna told Quintanilla about his sexual encounter with Nicholson, it "piqued" Quintanilla's interest, Bittar said. Dragna thought Quintanilla knew Nicholson and that the two would have sex while Dragna waited, the attorney said.

When Dragna saw the bloodied Quintanilla, he went up into the victim's apartment and saw Nicholson on the couch "snoring," so the two left, Bittar said.

Dragna told police he thought the victim was still alive, he said.