True Crime All The Time - Timothy John Cook

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

Omar Medina was a young music producer who went missing in September 2017. Days later, his body was found in a barrel in the San Diego Bay. Investigators traced the evidence back to Omar’s former landlord, Timothy John Cook. Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss Timothy John Cook and the murder of Omar Medina. Cook denied all involvement in Omar's murder, but the investigation of a truck and a boat led to him and also to one of his friends as a possible accomplice. Did Cook kill over a security deposit? Or did he have a much broader plan to fleece Omar out of a recent inheritance?You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 432 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime, Mike Gibson. How are you? Hey, I'm doing good. How about you? I'm doing great. Yeah. I'm having an excellent week.

And I hope to have that continue with the recording of these episodes. Absolutely. But first, let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Inga Bosworth. Hey, Inga, tell Brian we said hi. Yeah, Liza Green. What's going on, Liza? Tammy.

Oh, that's Tammy from the movie. be Tammy. I doubt it. Tessa B.1,23. A, B, 12, 13. I always like it when people put their pen numbers in their names. Yeah, I love it. But toothless. But toothless. You got to be kind of careful with that, don't you? A little bit. It could be but oothless, I guess, if you wanted to say it that way. But I don't think so. Could that be a thing? I don't think so. No. Brian Middleton. Hey, Middleton. Lee Cervantes. Ah, Savantes. Beyond. Blest. Hey, beyond.

Laurel Hosler. Hosler. Derek McIntosh. Nice apple farm, buddy. And last but not least, Chuck Whitten. Name like Chuck. Yeah, and we appreciate that new support.

Then if we go back into the vault. This week, we selected Marilyn Strong. Thanks, Marilyn. So we appreciate that continued support very much. Gibbs, we have a Patreon episode. that we dropped on Saturday night, it's on Ken Sean Pan. And it's a fairly recent case,

goes back to 2021, when 26-year-old Kevin Jiang was murdered in what appeared to be a violent case of road rage. But police were able to use social media and some other tricks of the trade to identify what turned out to be a pretty surprising suspect. It really did. And the motive behind it is, you know, not hard to believe because we know it happens, but it's kind of shocking.

It is and unfortunate. We also have a brand new episode out on True Crime All Time Unsolved, where we're talking about the disappearance of the Flanin Isles Lighthouse Keepers. It's a good one. A very mysterious case. you've got three lighthouse keepers who vanish in 1900. This occurred in Scotland. And there is an official theory as to what happened to three men. But there's also a lot of rumors that kind of run the gamut from sea monsters to murder and everything in between.

Those lighthouses, you know, are kind of freaky. You know, these older lighthouses like this one, kind of freaky. You have the famous lighthouse poem or whatever from Edgar Poe. What's his name? Edgar Allen Poe? Yeah, that guy. Okay. He wrote a poem about a lighthouse, you know.

I will take your word for it. But this lighthouse is kind of freaky. If you look at the picture of it, obviously, it's in the middle of nowhere on this aisle. But it's also, there's also like 160 odd stone steps. that you have to climb to get to it. Quite the workout. Yes. But make sure you check that out.

All right, buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all the time? I am ready. We're talking about Timothy John Cook and the murder of Omar Medina. Omar Medina was a young music producer who went missing in September 2017. Days later, his body was found in a barrel in San Diego. Bay. Investigators were able to trace the evidence back to his former landlord who turned out to be Timothy John Cook. Omar Medina was just 28 years old when he was murdered. He was the youngest of

three children and was close with his family. He loved being an uncle. Growing up, Omar was described as quiet, observant, and a brilliant musician. His sister Alicia Villegas told NBC San Diego, The best way I can describe Omar is just saying music. He was just a brilliant musician. He played literally a little bit of every instrument. And music has always been such a big part of our family. Pretty talented. You can pick up about any instrument and play it.

And there are some people like that. Some people just learn how to play the piano or they study the guitar and they know how to play that. Some people, it's just like music comes. Not that they don't work hard, but it comes so naturally to them that they could pick up just about anything and play it. Omar went on to become a part-time music producer. He was described as creative and introspective. He loved to read and write and often expressed his feelings in his journal.

You know, what I am starting to learn by the number of true crime cases that we'd done is how many people actually keep a journal? I used to journal, but I haven't done that in a long time. But my daughter does it all the time. I was talking to her not too long ago. And she's like, dad, I had to buy another journal. I'm like, why? How much can you write?

You know, what's going on to your life that you're going through journal so much? She likes to write down a lot of things. Yeah, people do. Yeah. And it's not just, you know, like teenagers. You kind of, I always thought like, you know, maybe teenage girls, keep a journal or whatever. That's not the case. A lot of people, even adults, like to journal. Yeah. Put down their thoughts and maybe go back and look at what they were experiencing at certain points in their life.

It would kind of be cool if you think about it to have that. A flashback in your time. Yeah. Go back and look at five, ten years ago or around when big things were happening in your life. How were you feeling? Now, I don't have that because I've never journaled in my life. Yeah, I mean, when I was journaling, I did it because of work. You know, I just wanted to be able to go back to something to remember why I did something or something was done or whatever, right? It was just a system of record for me. Yeah, or in case you needed an alibi or had to testify, something like that.

In September 2017, Omar was living in Chula Vista, California. He rented an addition attached to the home of 50s. year old Timothy John Cook. Omar and Tim also worked together at a scaffolding business owned by Tim's younger brother. On September 30th, 2017, Omar went to

visit his mother. His sister Alicia was also there and she saw that all of his belongings were packed up in his car. Omar seemed anxious. He said he was moving out, but he hadn't found new living arrangements. Alicia suggested

that he stayed with their mother. At the time, several aunts were visiting. So Omar decided he would wait to move his things until they left. Well, I mean, he didn't want to crowd the space, right? Yeah, we have no idea how big this house is. But if you have several family members who are also staying there, it might be tough to move in right at that point. Omar asked Alicia to tell their mother he would be back later.

Alicia went out to the movies with their friends later that. day when she got home she checked in with omar via facebook messenger she saw that he read her message but he didn't respond a few hours later she sent another message which he never opened she was a little worried but thought maybe he was just out with his friends yeah i know a lot of people don't like that when someone read your message but didn't respond i think that being put on red it's like wait why haven't you responded to me you saw my message you read it. You know what my kids say to that? What would they say? We didn't think that was something that needed to be responded to. And I said, you don't get to make that determination. Exactly.

I send you a message, respond. If dad sends you something, send something back. But no, I think people of a certain age, they do have different thoughts, I'll say, than maybe people of our age do about responding to things. A lot of the things that. A lot of the things that you, you know, you and I would look at and say, well, obviously, I've got to respond to that. They look at it as more as informational. Yeah. That, okay, read it, got it. Don't need to confirm, respond anything.

That's how my son is. Because I'll be like, hey, he sold the message I sent you the other day. He's like, yeah. I'm like, can you help me out here? No, I. Maybe answer the question. I have the same thing. and I'm sure a lot of parents listening are saying, yeah, we've got that too.

Yeah. The next morning, Alicia's mother called her and asked if she had spoken with Omar. This was when she knew something was wrong. Alicia reported Omar missing that day. She tried to access Omar's phone records, but was unable to see his incoming calls. Alicia recruited her friends to pass out missing person flowers. They also messaged people on social media, but no. one had seen or heard from Omar. So, I mean, let's face it, she did not wait very long,

which is good. I think it's always good to start as soon as possible. If you think a loved one is missing, you know, you have the, the reading and the not responding. And then you have messages that are not even opened. Nobody's spoken to him on the telephone. And then you have messages that are not even opened. nobody's spoken to him on the telephone or anything like that. So obviously everyone was working. On October 8th, 2017, Omar's white Cadillac was found abandoned a few blocks from his former residence. The vehicle was unlocked.

All of Omar's belongings, including valuable items like his computer and guitar, were still inside. So obviously no theft occurred. No, but I also look at it. much in the same way that, you know, when we talk about an unsolved case where someone goes missing and you talk about what's left in their room, let's say, you know, wallet, cell phone, glasses, prescriptions, okay, that doesn't seem normal if somebody has decided to kind of take off.

Now, we're talking about a vehicle that essentially has all of his important items, in it. Pretty much everything he owns. And he's just going to walk away from it and not lock the door. Doesn't make sense. And when you think about somebody that loved music as much as he didn't, I think if he was going to grab one thing, he'd grab his guitar. Probably. Alicia called the police to report the discovery. The patrol officer asked for more information about why Omar moved out of Tim Cook's house. Alicia didn't know. But she mentioned that the house was. nearby. The patrol officer went over to speak to Tim Cook. Tim claimed he hadn't seen Omar for six or seven days. He last saw him on his way to the casino. He allowed the officer to look inside

Omar's old room. The addition was in disarray. There was water and construction debris on the floor. The carpet had been ripped out and one of the windows was broken. Tim said he was renovating space and planned on turning it into a gamer. I get it, you know, somebody moves out. You decide, hey, I'm going to make me a gamer. Sure. Now, I don't know at what point during the demolition you make the decision that you need to break one of the windows. That seems, you know, somewhat odd to me. And I think anytime you have carpet that's been ripped out and you have someone missing, you have to look at it. You have to look at it. You have to look at that with at least a little bit of suspicion.

But it also makes sense. If you're going to put new carpet in. Sure. Absolutely. Could also be that that carpet had to be ripped out because it was a crime scene. Absolutely. At the end of the block where Omar's car was found was a major intersection and a gas station with cameras, police retrieved the surveillance footage and saw a video of Omar's car passing

by the gas station on October 1st. However, the video was too blurry to identify the driver. Oh, those good old gas station videos. Yeah, now we're talking 2017, so it's not too old, right, as far as technology goes. But when you think about a business, what is it that they're most likely to be focusing on? Well, if you're a gas station, you're probably focusing on the pumps and the parking lot. You're probably not trying to make sure your camera picks up the occupants of passing cars. And I'm sure they don't, I don't know, when you used to run all those gas stations,

did you guys get out there and clean the camera lenses all the time? I can't remember ever doing it one time now that you, you mentioned it. But I, and I think I've said it before, back then, it was so long ago, this was the 90s, we were using the old VCR system. Yeah. And so you essentially, because we were open seven days a week, you had seven tapes. And the video was compressed so that it could fit 24 hours on a single BHS tape. But that also meant once the next week rolled around, that tape was getting written over.

So if the police didn't come within that week, that footage was going to be gone. And I'm sure that made the quality of the tape worse as you recorded over and over and over and over again. Oh, yeah, as anybody remembers with VHS tapes, when you tried to record over them hundreds and hundreds of times, it was not a high definition. Right. Let's put it that way. On October 12th, 2017, a diver found a 55-gallon drum floating in the San Diego Bay in Chula Vista. there were holes drilled into the drum and steel cable lines were attached to cinder blocks that weighed it down.

Sounds like some type of garage engineering project. Yeah, it also sounds a little mob like, to be honest with. Anytime I hear about cinder blocks, I think of the mob. Well, that's just stereotypical. Yeah, it is. That's a stereotype. The San Diego Harbor police responded to the divers call and opened. the barrel inside was a man's badly decomposed body. I don't know if I want to be that person that

pops that lid. Why would you want to be that person? Somebody's got that job. I don't want to be that guy that has that job. Well, somebody's got to do it. But I can't imagine anybody's like raising their hands saying, oh yeah, let me do this. There might be one person. You better watch out for that guy. Yeah. Now, authorities didn't identify the deceased person, but news outlets reported that a man was at the marina on October 12th, passing out flyers for Omar Medina, who had been missing for almost two weeks at that point. A friend of the family told 10 news. We did ask for a wellness check where he lived. Police came back and found it suspicious. And they did request the detective start looking into this.

So I think at least that's a good point on the part of the police. They didn't go over. and just kind of take this man's word for it and say, oh, okay, well, we buy that. They looked at it and said, we need to check it out a little bit more. Yeah, take a little deeper dive. The autopsy was completed the next day. It was determined that the victim was stabbed 66 times. Oh, man. That is a lot of stabbing.

It is. The pathologist could not determine an exact time of death. And I can imagine it would be pretty tough. I mean, you've got a body that's decomposed or decomposing. The body's also in the water. I think all of that would make, you know, the time of death determination tougher. But the victim was eventually identified as Omar Medina by his fingerprints and his distinctive tattoo. Omar's friends and family held his funeral at the end of October.

enlisted his date of death as the day he was found. A friend who attended the funeral told 10 news that they didn't want to talk about how Omar died, but they were pretty sure the victim in the barrel was Omar. I think it'd be a tough thing to talk about. Well, because, you know, however it happened, it's not good, right? There's no scenario where a person is stabbed that many times, placed into a barrel, and then that barrel is sunk in in a bay. And that turns out to be accidental or, you know, anything like that.

This is obviously foul play. On November 22nd, 2017, officials publicly identified the body in the barrel as Omar Medina. Detective said they waited to release the name to protect the investigation. They revealed they had not. narrowed down their suspect list after finding Omar's body. Investigators focused on surveillance cameras around the harbor and the marina. I mean, what a game changer cameras have been with investigations.

Oh, absolutely. Because there's so many of them, right? Most businesses have them. There are cameras on streetlights at intersections. individuals have not only security systems with outdoor cameras, but you've got the proliferation of like the doorbell cameras as well. And they pick up a lot. The video is actually really good on some of those very small doorbell cameras. But to me, it does make a lot of sense, right? To kind of start focusing around the harbor and the marina. Obviously, this body was

put into the water and probably at one of those locations. On October 11th, the cameras picked up a green F-150, pulling a small freshwater boat. Authorities identified it as a bass tracker boat, but the video was too blurry to get further identifying information. The boat stood out to investigators because it wasn't meant to go into the ocean. It doesn't really sound like an ocean, but boat sounds more like a lake or river boat yeah fresh water right and you know bass trackers are pretty common it's a relatively inexpensive fishing boat that you can buy at um bass pro shops cabellas it's their brand right the bass pro shop brand but it's not something that you want to take out on

the ocean you have to worry you have to worry about sizable wakes. Waves. Yeah, things like that. It's not going to hold up well for any type of extended period. But if you just need to put it in the water to get it out a little ways to dump a barrel, okay. Maybe that's what it was used for. Yeah. Cameras captured one man getting into the boat and driving off into the bay. The boat returned less than an hour later, sitting. noticeably higher in the water, which to authorities meant it was lighter. This was suspicious and indicated the driver dumped something into the bay. Well, that's true. I forgot those bass tracker. They sit low. They're not a high boat anyway. No, and most of those bass trackers,

they're not big boats. You know, you're not talking about 30, 40 footers here. You know, you're in some cases, these are small 13 foot. Maybe they get up to 19, right, for some of the more expensive bass trackers, but they're not big, big boats. Detectives checked video surveillance from a building near the harbor and found a distant video of the truck and boat, but again, it was too blurry to get identifying information. And there were a lot of green F-150s registered in the area, so investigators focused on identifying the boat instead. And that makes sense, right? Ford F150 is the biggest selling truck in the United States. It is. And has been every year for, I don't know how many years. Longer than I think I can remember. Yeah. Now, I don't know that green is the most common color, but.

Sounds like it might have been a popular color. Well, maybe in California it was. Yeah. It sounds to me like authorities thought it would be easier to know. narrowed down this bass tracker than it would be this green F-150. A detective reached out to the manufacturer to get information on the model and arrange for what year it was made. This information was sent to the California DMB. Investigators received a list of hundreds of potential owners. That's a lot.

It is, but it isn't. If you could cross-reference that with F-150 owners, that'll be awesome. Yeah, and maybe they could. I don't know. But when you're talking about the California DMV, there's a lot of people who live in California. I don't know how narrowed down this search was. If it was just a part of California, if you're talking about the entire state of California and there was only hundreds of bass trackers, that's not many. No, that's a pretty good list. Because there's hundreds of bass trackers like in the county I live in. Like it's a very popular boat around here, but we're landlocked.

So we have freshwater lakes and things like that. That's where you're going to find more of that type of boat. Meanwhile, detectives looked into the people who knew Omar, refocusing on his landlord Tim Cook. Investigators surveilled Tim and observed him pressure washing his driveway and putting trash bags into his vehicle. Okay. Now, you could drive through any neighborhood, right? You might see somebody out pressure washing their driveway. You might see somebody transporting trash bags. I don't, I don't know why you put trash bags in your vehicle. Maybe you're going to the dump. I don't know. Maybe. Most people just put them in the trash can, which then goes to the curb.

but when you're already suspicious of someone, then I think the pressure washing and the trash bags and all that kind of takes on a bit more of importance. Or you look at it a little differently. Yeah, some potential suspicious activity. Yes, absolutely. Officers pulled him over when he drove off with the bags, which contained wet rags and other items that smelled like bleach.

Police seized his vehicle, but they didn't yet have probable cause to arrest him. They suspected he was one of the men from the marina footage, but they didn't know who the second man was. So again, if you're suspicious of someone and you find that they have tons of rags that smell like bleach, they've ripped up carpet. Okay. That sounds like a recipe for cleaning up a crime scene. It really does. it's kind of setting off all the all the alarms when looking into him further police discovered his brother had a storage facility in the yard of that storage facility was a green f-150 that matched the marina

footage inside the truck was a home depot receipt and a mug with a photo of an unknown man printed on it a fingerprint was lifted off the home depot receipt and that print was linked to 38-year-old old Derek Spurgeon, whose mug shot matched the photo on the mug. Some things are coming together. They are, Rick, can we talk about a man who's got a coffee mug with a picture of himself on it? You got one right here. True.

I still think it's strange. It is strange. I don't take it outside the home. And I gave you one with me on it and you never use it. No, I smashed that one right away. My wife's got a ton of, you know, coffee mugs with pictures of the girls. on them from all types of different years throughout the years. She used to just get pictures put on mugs. She doesn't have any of her on one. She doesn't even have any of me on one. I don't know.

It just seems like it'd be strange. It would be strange to sit there and drink a coffee staring at yourself. Why? I look good today, don't I? authorities found a bass tracker boat registered to Derek's girlfriend's address where he also lived this gave them probable cause to search the property and seize the boat investigators found cinder blocks and 55 gallon drums on the property this is kind of like the lotto at this point for investigators yeah i mean they're they're hitting big time however this wasn't enough to arrest Derek because the CCTV footage from the Harbor was not clear enough to place him there.

Investigators then reviewed footage from the Home Depot. The store had clear video of Tim Cook purchasing a push broom and cleaning supplies, which again could be suspicious, but it doesn't have to be. I mean, it's not the smoking gun. No, absolutely not. Tim Cook was not immediately arrested, but authorities did get a search warrant for his residents. When they returned to his house, there were significant changes. Tim had torn out the drywall and the addition, remove the flooring, and pressure wash. No blood was found in Omar's room,

but it smelled strongly of bleach. Tim had also ripped out the sink in the main house. Somebody who's been busy? Yeah. And again, is it someone just, you know, trying to make their house nicer, trying to make a game room, or is this someone trying to cover up evidence of a crime? Investigators obtained search warrants for Tim's Google account and found photos of Omar's banking information and social security number. Okay, that's going to be tough to explain. Yeah, but could you also say, well, he was renting from me and I needed his social number and his banking information? That's a great point. Yeah. Actually, I just... said it's hard to explain. It's actually not that hard to explain. You know, when you say it that way,

investigators found footage from the gas station near Derek Spurgeon's residence. The green F-150 and boat were recorded pulling into the gas station parking lot. It was the clearest video they had yet. And for the first time, investigators were able to see a white barrel in the bed of the truck. Now we're cooking. Derek got out of the truck from the passenger. your side, the driver also got out and went inside the store. His face wasn't clearly captured on camera, but investigators could see a distinctive calf tattoo. This was compared to the body cam footage from Tim Cook's first conversation with the police, which identified him as the driver of the vehicle. I know a lot of people are into tattoos and some of them are awesome. But hey, if you're going to do something bad,

tattoos can really give you away. That's right. Cover them up. Stop telling people how to get away with crimes. That's not what we do. Oh, yeah, yeah. Sorry. But this is not looking good for Tim at all now, right?

They had all of these suspicions. But none of it was like you said, the smoking gun type stuff. But now you have Tim driving the Ford F-150 with the boat attached and you have a white barrel in the bed of the truck. That's right. On December 13th, 2017, Tim Cook and Derek Spurgeon were arrested at their respective homes. Both were initially charged with murder. At the time, officials didn't release information about why they arrested the suspects and the motive was unclear. Tim Cook was arraigned on his first degree murder charge. On December 15, 2017, he pleaded not guilty and was denied bail. Derek Spurgeon pleaded not guilty the day before.

The prosecutor noted that Tim had six prior felony convictions, including attempted murder and theft. Tim was convicted of attempted murder in 1997 and served 17 years in prison. Gives he shot a man in the face, blinding him in one eye. So he was a real winner. Well, yeah, that's not a great thing to do. I think, you know, what is it show? Well, first of all, you're going to look at six prior felony convictions as someone who habitually commits felonies. Right. Then you look at this attempted murder and I think you've got a guy who is more than capable

of committing the murder of Omar Medina. I think you got to feel pretty good about your suspect. Yeah, I think. so, I think as a prosecutor, you do. Prosecutors didn't reveal how Tim, Derek, and Omar were connected, but they did say Derek was involved with importing drugs into the U.S. from Mexico. At the preliminary hearing in July 2018, prosecutors played body cam footage showing the first time officers questioned Tim about Omar.

Officers had no evidence at the time to suspect a crime was committed. An officer testified that the police used phone records to link him to the area where the drum was found. Authorities still didn't reveal a potential motive for the murder. So not only did they have him, you know, on this very clear surveillance footage, driving the truck with the boat, with the barrel, they also were able to link him via phone records to the area where the drum was. was fat. Opening statements for Tim Cook and Derek Spurgeon's joint trap started on November 5th, 2019. By this point, Derek was charged with accessory after the fact. He was accused of driving the boat

used to dump the body and helping dump the barrel into the San Diego Bay. Now, accessory after the fact is not a good charge, but it's a heck of a lot different than first degree murder. Kind of surprised the DA didn't, I'm trying to work them against each other. Well, how do you know they didn't? Well, that's true. I don't. Because I think a lot of times that stuff happens behind the scenes. It just never gets disseminated.

Yeah. So we don't know. And maybe it just doesn't go the way that prosecutors would hope. Some people are pretty loyal to each other. You know what I'm saying? I know. You tell me all the time that in the event, something goes down, I need to be loyal. That's right. Remember who your friends are.

In her opening statement, Deputy D.A. Sherry Somerville told the jury that Omar and Tim worked at a scaffolding business owned by Tim's younger brother and were roommates in Chula Vista. In text messages to his brother, Tim expressed his annoyance with Omar over his drinking habits and messiness. In one message, he called Omar a dirty pig per the San Diego Union Tribune. And I'll be honest with you Gibbs, when I was in my early 20s living on my own, I was a very messy person. And I had a roommate who was my best friend in the world who could not stand it. He was a very orderly, still is neat person. Yeah. And, you know, I come home from work. I'm just throwing clothes as I walk in the door, my coat, my shoes, just throwing them wherever, make some dinner. I might not clean the stuff up right away, you know, might sit there.

It would drive him up the wall. Kind of like the studio down here. Well, a little bit, but not upstairs because my wife, over almost 30 years of marriage, has molded me into a much tidier person. Yeah. Let's put it that way. She allows you to be yourself down here. Yes.

This is where I can be myself. It stops at the stairs. It does. Absolutely. So Tim eventually kicked Omar out of the house. Deputy D.A. Somerville also noted that Omar had recently come into a substantial amount of money after receiving an $84,000 settlement from a lawsuit. The details of the lawsuit were not reported in the sources we use for this episode. So we don't know exactly what it was for, but okay, $84,000, a lot of money.

Sure it is. The prosecution showed the jury photos of Omar's bank statement that were found on Tim's phone. Deputy D.A. Somerville said, that is motive, ladies and gentlemen. Well, it is motive. It is. And you and I kind of bantered back and forth about the Google history. You know, what does this mean? He's got copies of his bank statement. And you said something that I thought was very smart.

yeah, is that something that maybe you would ask for before renting out space? Yes. Now, but what about the timing? Well, that comes down to that, right? Yeah. So now we find out that this bank statement was after he got the lawsuit settlement money. So that makes it seem as though it probably wasn't prior to moving in. The evidence showed that Omar went back to the house.

on September 30th, 2017, because Tim hadn't returned Omar's security deposit. There was an altercation that ended with Tim stabbing Omar over 60 times in the chest, back, neck, and head. Tim knew that taking Omar's money so soon after the murder would make him a suspect, so he didn't access Omar's accounts. As a precaution, however, his bank records showed that on September 30th, He deposited $480 into an ATM. Prior to that, he had been texting his brothers, asking for money. So hurting for some money, but yet he had $480 he could put into an ATM. So he had to get that $480 from somewhere, right?

Yeah, and it just happened to be on the day that, you know, police believed Omar was murdered. But to kill somebody, stab them over 60 times. Because I don't want to get that deposit back to you. Yeah, if it was only that, it would be even more unbelievable. But I think maybe the grander scheme was to somehow access this 84,000. Yeah. And maybe siphon it out, hopefully without anybody noticing.

I mean, we've seen people kill for hundreds of dollars. Oh, we have. but $84,000 to some is definitely emoted. Sure. From October 1st through October 7, Tim told his brother he was out of town. However, the evidence indicated Tim never left San Diego County. He spent that week cleaning the crime scene. I always like to analyze, you know, what's the jury going to make of all of these little tidbits of information?

And to me, if you're talking to your brother and you're going to spend the week at your house renovating a room into a game room, why not just tell him that? Yeah. Why would you lie and say you're going out of town unless you don't want anybody to pop in because you're getting rid of a bloody crime scene? Well, that is probably why. Well, and let's face it, 66 stab wounds. That would create one hell of a bloody mess.

It would. That would have to be cleaned up. There's just no way around it. I'm sure it wasn't set up like a dexter. No, with the sheeting and all of that. On October 11th, Tim enlisted Derek Spurgeon's help to dispose of the body in a barrel. The jury heard that Tim's brother's truck was captured towing Derek's boat to the San Diego Bay and a barrel matching the one Omar was founded, was seen in the bed of the truck.

Just wonder how that call went between Tim and Derek. Hey, buddy, need your help. Need your boat. I got a body I need to get rid of. I never understand how any of these conversations occur, whether it's the prior to the murder conversation with somebody or multiple people about, hey, I need you to help me kill so and so. No. Yeah. I'm not killing anyone. But how many times do people go along with it?

Now you have a conversation that is after the murder, but you're enlisting the help of someone to dispose of a body. Maybe you just said, hey, I got this barrel. I need to dump in the ocean. Can you help me out? All right. Let's analyze that for a minute. I call you on a Tuesday night and I say, you know what, Gibbs, I know you got a boat.

I've got a barrel that I need to dispose of and I want to throw it in the lake down the road. Can you help me out? What is your first question going to be? What's in the barrel? What's in the barrel? And why are you throwing a barrel in the lake? Right. I got a better place for it.

I think, and I don't think I'm stretching here too much. that he told Derek exactly what he was doing. Yeah, I killed this guy. I've got his body in a barrel. I need your help in disposing him. And for whatever reason, this guy said,

yeah, I'm all in. And I never understand that. I mean, I've got great friends. I've got people who I really trust and who trust me. But if they're coming to me,

with the idea of a murder or telling me a murder's already happened and wanting me to help dispose of a body. We're done. That's it. I love you. We've been friends for a long time, but we're done. Mentally noted. And you have to wonder, you know, was there some enticements?

You know, did he tell Derek, hey, I'm going to be coming into, you know, this $84,000. I'll give you X. Right. Because why is somebody doing that just to be helpful? Well, that's true. And taking the chance of spending serious prison time. I don't get it. Maybe he had something up on him or like he said, maybe he said, hey, you help me out.

I got 10 grand coming your way. It's got to be one of the other, right? Yeah. The prosecutor also walked the jury through cell phone tower data that supported their case. Tim and Omar's phones were both at the house on September 30th. cell phone records showed text and calls between Tim and Derek on October 10th. At the time, the body was dumped in the bay on October 11. Tim and Derek's phones connected to a tower in the harbor area.

So, you know, he did wait almost two weeks. Yeah. And maybe that whole period was trying to figure out, what am I going to do with this body? Yeah. where am I going to take it? How am I going to dispose of it? And who can I get to help me? Yeah. The defense argued that there was no hard evidence tying Tim to the murder.

The prosecution lacked a murder weapon and witnesses. While Tim was irritated by Omar's messiness, this wasn't a motive for murder. The defense also argued that if Tim wanted Omar's settlement money, he would have tried to get closer to him, not kick him out of the house. They also claim that Tim removed the walls and flooring in Omar's room because he was making repairs to the home, per his lease agreement, and was not covering up evidence of a murder. Easy to say that. Well, I think they have to say that, right? At the same time, Derek Spurgeon's defense argued there was no evidence he had any knowledge. He was helping Tim dispose of a body if Tim committed the murder at all.

Now, my client did go with the defendant. They did load up a 55-gallon barrel on my client's boat. You know, they drove out. They weighed the barrel down and they dumped it in the water. But my client had no idea what was in that barrel. He was just, you know, lending his help, lending his boat along for the ride. And is that illegal? It's littering, maybe.

polluting. It's a little different charge, right? It is, but, you know, obviously I'm being sarcastic because, again, I go back to who does that without asking a million questions of, first of all, why are you dumping this in the bay and what's in it? Yeah. And why do you need to weigh it down? The men did exchange phone calls on October 11th, But there was no evidence regarding what they discussed or what was said during the alleged boat ride. Derek's defense pointed out that Tim lied to his brother so they couldn't know whether Tim lied to Derek about why they were dumping a barrel into the ocean. I'm sure you could have came up with some other reason to why he's dumping the barrel and what was in the barrel. Oh, yeah.

I mean, the defense is not wrong by pointing all of this up. But I think if you're on the jury, do you go back? to why is this guy doing this? Why is he okay with helping this other man dump this big ass barrel into the ocean? Yeah, I don't know. It's going to make me have reasonable doubts. It's like, okay. I know they're saying it's not a body in there and that he didn't realize that,

but I think I'm going to be sitting there going, I think he knew. In closing, the prosecution argued that Omar's injuries showed malice and that Tim Cook was motivated by hatred and cold hard catch. And I'm sure they pointed out the number of stab wounds. Yeah. You know, who stabs somebody 66 times? Somebody to hate you? Normally. That's what it shows, right? Rage. You don't need to stab someone 66 times to murder them if that's your end goal. Investigators found barrels, cinder blocks and a wire kit on Spurgeon's property. Some, to those in which Omar's body was found. Deputy D.A. Somerville said,

none of that is a coincidence. Derek Spurgeon knew exactly what he was helping Tim Cook do. Yeah. I think it's hard to argue that. I think it is as well. The defense conceded that Tim found Omar's body in the house and put it in a barrel because he was scared. But he didn't know who killed him.

His attorney Kara Owen said, per Fox 5 San Diego, it's evidence of Cook disposing of Medina. It's not pretty, but there's absolutely no evidence he killed him. Okay, well, logically, you circle back to Tim. Who else would want Omar dead? Well, the defense said, you know, there's no murder weapon. Tim had no motive to kill Omar. They emphasized that Tim helped Omar by giving him a place to live,

and they worked well together at the scaffolding business. He didn't give him a place. He charged him to live at that place. And it does sound as though, you know, things went bad at some point, evidenced by Tim eventually kicking Omar out. Derek Spurgeon's lawyer said about the incriminating security footage, this is all speculation on what was said between Cook and Spurgeon, even if anything was set.

And I get that right. You have video. You don't have audio. So you don't know exactly what they were talking about. But the video just by itself, you know, that we've talked about is pretty incriminating. Yeah. Truck, boat, barrel. But I will say, you know, it makes me think of that Robert Durst case down in Texas.

Yeah. You know, a jury let him off on. that one, even though, you know, he dismembered the body, he threw it in the water. Now, he claimed self-defense and they agreed with him. Yeah. So you just never know what a jury is going to do. And you don't have video of Tim stabbing. No. Omar. And that's not what, you know, you have in most cases. You've got all these different pieces of evidence that kind of lead you in this one direction. Now, is any of it definitive? That's tough to say.

Yeah. It all paints a certain picture. It does. But I think there's very few cases where they have like what you call the smoking gun, which is that one piece of evidence that says there's no doubt in the world that anyone else but the defendant killed this person. I think most trials are not like that. Jurors began deliberating on November 26th and recessed for Thanksgiving.

On December 5th, 2019, the jury found Tim Cook guilty of second-degree murder. A mistrial was declared for Derek Spurgeon after the jury deadlocked 10-2 on the accessory charge. On January 6, 2020, Tim Cook was sentenced to 56 years to life in prison. So on the one hand, you would say, okay, it's second degree murder. Yeah. You would think stabbing someone 66 times would be first degree murder, but maybe the argument was there, there was no proof it was premeditated. You could stab someone 66 times in a fit of rage, but you didn't plan on doing it. True. I mean, that is possible. And you don't have a weapon.

And you don't have the weapon. But 56 years to life is a very healthy scent. Yeah. You know, I could see where the family might be upset with the actual verdict, the second degree versus the first degree. But 56 years to life is a very healthy sense. It's almost like a year for every stab. Almost.

In her victim impact statement, Omar's sister said she chose to forgive him. Tim's attorney read his written statement to the court. Tim claimed he discovered Omar's body and disposed of it because he worried he would be blamed for a murder he didn't commit. There have been a lot of people who have used that kind of defense, if you want to call it that. I didn't kill him, but I thought they were going to blame me. So I just chose to get rid of the body.

But that's all I did. He said he did what he did out of fear. and didn't expect the family or the court to believe him, adding, I'm truly embarrassed and ashamed for my involvement in this case. Is it believable? Not to me. But at a certain point, I think once you've already said that, you kind of got to ride with it.

Sure. Because what's the harm? Why admit to it now? Not going to help you. No. Now, maybe it hurts you way, down the road if you get to a parole hearing. Because you never did really take responsibility for it.

But in the moment when you've just been convicted, when you've just been sentenced, I kind of see why a lot of these defendants kind of stick with that story. Whether it's believable or not, they've already told the story. So, you know, roll with it. On December 16, 2020, Derek Spurgeon pleaded guilty. to a misdemeanor count of unlawful disposal of a body, as well as robbery and narcotics offenses. Now, those were separate, right?

A misdemeanor count of unlawful disposal of a body. That's a far cry from accessory after the fact to murder. It's a big difference. It's a misdemeanor. I mean, I really think that that was a great plea deal for him. Absolutely. It's a slap on the wrist. I would expect anybody in his position to jump on that. And I'm sure that's what his attorney said.

Yeah, but you could also see why maybe the prosecution was having trouble, right? They already had a mistrial. They had a deadlock jury. I'm sure there were some members on that jury who felt as though they weren't 100% sure. Derek knew exactly what was in that barrel. In the unrelated robbery case, the victim testified that he was injured by Derek and his accomplice, Kenny John Shutt, who stole most of his belongings. In 2017, the victim suffered facial fractures and was hospitalized for a week.

Kenny pleaded guilty to robbery and making a criminal threat and was sentenced to five years and four months in prison. On January 22nd, 2021, Derek Spurgeon was sentenced to. to six months in the county jail for the misdemeanor charge and over a decade in state prison for the robbery and drug charges. So kind of sweet in the end that he got hung up on something else that put him away for a little bit of time? Yeah, because I think he had a little more culpability than what he was allowed to, you know,

plead deal down to, you know, six months in the same. the county jail, that's not much in the grand scheme of things. But like you said, it's kind of a good thing that he had these other charges and he got, you know, over a decade for those. He was given credit for 1232 days served since 2017. After the sentencing, Omar's sister Alicia Villegas said she was ready to move on to the next chapter of her life. She was thinking, thankful that Derek pleaded guilty because it was the last time she would have to go through court proceedings. Yeah, I'm sure she didn't want to continue going down that memory lane and have to endure another trial and yeah, have all that dredged up. I get that. Alicia was the last family member

to see Omar alive when she gave her victim impact statement. She told the court how difficult it was for her family to not know Omar's whereabouts. She told NBC San Diego, my words to him were along just saying how desperate that was. And for somebody to do such a thing, your moral compass is broken. For you to be that person that somebody called to say, I killed somebody. I need you to help me get rid of this body. Like, what's going on inside of you that you would think that's okay? All right.

she's got the very same kind of way of thinking that you and I do. Right. And I'm sure a lot of people listening are thinking the same thing. Number one, your moral compass is definitely broken. You know, if you kill somebody or you help somebody dispose of a body, you got something wrong with your moral compass for sure. You do. This is not a ride and die kind of a thing, right?

Unfortunately, I think it is. I think it was a kind of a right. or die type of thing. Well, for him, yeah, but I mean, most friends. It shouldn't be. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, is what you're saying.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I get that. On March 11, 2012, an appellate court upheld Tim Cook's conviction and sentencing. So,

you know, Gibbs, as we wrapped this one up, the evidence in this case clearly showed that Tim Cook killed Omar Medina and enlisted Derek Spurgeon to help him dispose of the body.

But there are a number of number of unanswered questions. We know that Tim's motive was most likely obtaining Omar's settlement money, but we don't know what happened during the altercation on September 30th, 2017 that led to Omar being stabbed 66 times, which, as you and I have already said, indicated a deep level of rage and hatred on Tim's part. Sure did. You know, I don't know if this was a combination of longer term planning. You know, Tim was going to kill Omar, try to get his hands on that money. And then also there was kind of this whole thing about the security deposit.

You know, did they get into it over that? And that led to the stabbing because Tim was maybe already planning to kill him anyway. Yeah. So maybe he decided, well, I'm going to do it now. Because this is getting out of control. I ain't give any many money. So I'm going to do it. Now's the time.

And then I'm going to tell everyone that I've, you know, kind of taken the week off. I'm going on a little mini vacay. But really, I'm doing full-blown crime scene cleanup. Right. In my house. Which apparently he did a good job at.

Yeah, because we know it's not easy. And it wouldn't have been easy to clean up that amount of, blah. Now, if you're ripping out walls and you're ripping up carpet, I think you're making it a lot easier on yourself than to try to clean things, which he did clean some stuff. But if you're just getting rid of entire walls and carpet, well, maybe that's the easiest way to do it. I just go back to the money. You know, whether it was parts of. security deposit, partly this $84,000. Not that $84,000 isn't a lot of money,

but to stab someone 66 times and end their life. It just seems ludicrous. I mean, you talk about moral compass. Yours isn't broken. You've lost it. Yeah, it's gone. It fell out of your pocket when you was, you know, walking down the street.

But unfortunately, you could say that about a lot of the cases that we do. You can't. Things just don't make sense, and it's hard to try to make sense of them. But that's it for our episode on Timothy John Cook and the murder of Omar Medina. We got some voicemails, Gibbs. You want to check those out? Let's hear them.

All right. Hi, Macon, Gibby. Okay, so I'm Megan, and I'm calling from Canada. I told myself earlier back in 2023 that I would leave a voicemail once I finish true crime all the time. And I didn't because I chickened out. And then I said I would do it when I got to episode 400 of unsolved. And I didn't do that. And then I said I would call in when I could brag about getting my new job. And I didn't do that. And now I'm caught up on everything. So I have no excuses left. But I just wanted to say thank you for everything that you guys do. I listen to your podcast all

the time, literally true crime all the time. My husband makes fun of me. I wanted to comment on the Jack family murders because I'm not too far from Prince George. And even until today, you could walk into a bar and get offered a job from some stranger in the logging industry or mining industry to hop in their truck and go out and be in a remote camp for weeks. So people still do it to this day, I know people that have done it. I mean, luckily nothing's happened to any of them, but wild things have happened. So honestly, the Jack Philemy murders could be, could be the guy that they owed money to and have nothing to do with the job offer, because that's a regular thing up in Northern B.C. Um, anyways, just wanted to say hi. And thank you

so much. I'm all caught up now, so I have no idea what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. But here we are. I'll just keep waiting week by week. And, uh, I'll keep up with you guys. Keep your own time ticking. Thanks. Bye. Oh, I just wanted to add one last thing. That job that I wanted to brag about is with the RCMP.

And I did get it. And I'm very excited. So hopefully I can keep you guys updated on some cool stuff that happens around here up in Canada. And we could be like a little trans-border dream team, especially during these times. Thanks. Bye. Thanks, Megan. Yeah, it's really cool.

You know, Dream Team might be a bit of a stretch because Gibby and I are involved. What are you trying to say? That we're not Dream Team material. She might be. She could be. Probably is. She probably is.

But unfortunately, we are not. We're good guys. We are. I just don't, I don't know that we're Dream Team. We can ride the heck out of horses. I know they don't mount horses anymore. I was going to say, what does that have to do with anything? I'm sure somewhere they still do.

Probably some of those mountainous areas. Yeah. Yeah. And they probably still have those big dogs with the barrels of whiskey. Oh, yeah. I always wanted one of those when I was little. You see them on the cartoons, even though obviously I wasn't going to drink whiskey when I was a kid, but I thought they were cool.

You think they tuck their pants inside their boots still? They probably do do that. Yeah. I don't know that for sure. But, well, we appreciate the voicemail and the kind words. We do. Hi, this is Carrie from North Dakota. I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed your guys' take on the Swanson motel murders.

And I actually live in Dickinson, North Dakota. And I've heard other people do their take on this case. And you guys did a really good job on it. I appreciate everything you guys do. I've been listening for years. and I look forward to listening every week. I'm Team Givie all the way. Have a good day.

Thanks, Carrie. I don't hear the North Dakota accent, though. A? Because I don't think everybody has it. North Dakota. Also, that is very Canadian with the A. Well, we had the Canadian one before. I'm just kind of...

Close. Yeah, you know, and North Dakota is very close to Canada. Uh-huh. You know, they're right there. I don't know how many people say, hey. And again, how many times do I told you? Not everybody in the state has the same accent. You and I don't even have the same accent.

Allegedly. No, that's confirmed. People say that all the time. And I can hear both of us talking right this minute. Well, I do have lots of accents. You do. I'm accidentally accented. Do you like that?

I didn't, to be honest with you. But on that note, we're going to wrap. No, I did find it funny. That is it for another episode of true crime all the time. So for Mike, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.