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Inset left: Mark Mechikoff appears in a Facebook photo. Inset right: a booking photo of the defendant. Background image: an apartment complex where a woman was stabbed to death in July 2023. (Facebook via screengrab/KNTV; San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office; Screengrab via KGO)
A California man who allegedly recorded himself stabbing a woman to death and then posted the video on Facebook recently appeared in court and told a judge his confession was AI-generated.
Mark Mechikoff, 39, stands accused of one count of murder and four enhancements: use of a deadly weapon, inflicting great bodily injury, committing a serious felony, and committing a violent felony with a prior felony conviction, according to San Mateo County court records.
The defendant was arrested for the gruesome slaying of Claribel Marie Estrella, 41, in July 2023. On March 1, after a change in attorney late last year, Mechikoff appeared for a preliminary hearing in his case.
That’s when he made a novel and seemingly contradictory claim about his guilt and innocence.
“During the hearing, the defendant exclaimed to the court that he did kill the victim, but his confession was generated by AI (artificial intelligence),” prosecutors wrote, summing up the bizarre court appearance, according to San Francisco-based CW affiliate KRON.
San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe said the claim is par for the course with this particular defendant.
“Mr. Mechikoff has done a whole series of strange things in this case,” the district attorney told SFGate. “This is just another one on that list.”
According to the online news website, Wagstaffe added that Mechikoff has also made unlikely claims about the olfactory dimensions of his jail cell and previously broke the light fixtures.
Law&Crime reached out to the district attorney’s office for additional details about the AI claim and the defendant’s latest court appearance but no response was immediately forthcoming.
In the footage of Estrella’s final moments, an assailant can be seen stabbing the woman with a knife. As she later bleeds out on the kitchen floor, a man stands over her body, speaking.
The first call to law enforcement came to the Nye County Sheriff’s Office in Nevada, San Mateo police said at the time of the arrest. A Nye County woman who knows Mechikoff reported seeing the snuff video on Facebook and provided authorities with his name and phone number. Silver State deputies isolated the cellphone data as best they could and passed the information along to local police.
Another person who said they knew Mechikoff called the San Mateo Police Department later that same day.
Ryan Lenahan told Oakland-based Fox affiliate KTVU that he also saw the video of Estrella’s brutal murder.
“There was a person bleeding out, [he was] standing over the person, repeating Bible verses and other types of incoherent nonsense,” Lenahan said, adding that he posted a comment on the video calling the suspect “sick” and messaged him to say: “Bro your disgusting I hope they have you in custody.”
Mechikoff, who Lenahan said he grew up with, allegedly called him via video some two hours later.
“He was just talking all sorts of babble, and he appeared to be in the same location as the crime took place,” Lenahan said.
He told KTVU that he called police immediately following that harrowing video conversation with the alleged killer.
Mechikoff was arrested hours later, without incident, after fleeing the scene of the crime, in San Jose, less than an hour away.
The defendant pleaded not guilty in August 2023.
“By putting it on Facebook … he felt a certain pride,” Wagstaffe told KRON after Mechikoff entered his plea. “That is the first time I’ve ever heard of anything like that. Certainly it’s never occurred in San Mateo County. It’s a horrific crime.”
