Sierra LaMar case: Verdict for man accused of abducting, killing girl on way to school
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Jurors on Tuesday convicted a man of randomly abducting and killing a 15-year-old Northern California girl on her way to school.
The verdict was read at the Santa Clara County Superior Court Tuesday morning after a three-month trial. Jurors started deliberating Thursday.
There were tears and applause in the courtroom as the verdict was read, reports CBS San Francisco.
Antolin Garcia-Torres, 26, pleaded not guilty to killing Sierra LaMar in 2012 in Morgan Hill, a rural community about 25 miles south of San Jose. Sierra's body has never been found.
Police arrested Garcia-Torres, 26, two months after Sierra was reported missing when investigators matched his DNA — taken during a previous assault arrest — to DNA found on items belonging to Sierra.
Garcia-Torres lived about 7 miles from Sierra in a trailer he shared with his mother, girlfriend and young daughter.
Investigators told jurors they found a strand of Sierra's hair on a rope in the trunk of Garcia-Torres' car. They say they found his DNA on her pants found in a vacant field. He told police he never met the teen. His attorney argued that the teen may have run away.
Garcia-Torres also pleaded not guilty to charges of trying to kidnap and carjack three women in 2009 as they returned to their cars late at night in Morgan Hill parking lots. He was also convicted on three counts of attempted kidnapping, reports CBS San Francisco.
The victims included an 18-year-old from Gilroy, a 46-year-old from San Martin and a 36-year-old from Morgan Hill.
Prosecutors said they believe Garcia-Torres is a predator and that the attempted kidnappings helped him prepare for Sierra's abduction and murder.
"Justice for Sierra has been served," Sierra's father Steve LaMar said, CBS San Francisco reported via Twitter. "Today is what we wanted."
LaMar vowed his family would continue searching for their daughter.
The jury determined that Garcia-Torres killed Sierra in the commission of a kidnapping, making him eligible for the death penalty, reports the San Jose Mercury News. The jury will reportedly begin hearing evidence in the trial's penalty phase next week, after which the panel will decide whether he should be sentenced to death or to life in prison without parole, according to the paper.
