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Sierra LaMar’s family along with dozens of volunteers who have been searching for her the last five years let out a collective gasp of relief May 9 when they heard the jury found Antolin Garcia Torres guilty of the Morgan Hill teen’s murder.
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The jury in the capital murder trial that started in January unanimously found Garcia Torres, 26 of Morgan Hill, guilty of murdering Sierra, who was 15 when she disappeared March 2012. He is also guilty of an enhancement to the charge for kidnapping.
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Garcia Torres was also found guilty of three counts of attempted kidnapping during the commission of a carjacking in relation to three incidents in the parking lots of two Safeway stores in Morgan Hill in 2009. He was tried on these counts at the same time as the murder charge.
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All four counts are felonies.
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The jury’s work is not over, as they will make a decision in the “penalty phase” of Garcia Torres’ fate, starting at a May 16 hearing in the same courtroom at the Hall of Justice. The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office is seeking the death penalty for the convicted murderer, and the jury will determine if Garcia Torres will be put to death or spend life in prison without the possibility of parole, prosecutor David Boyd told the media outside the courtroom in San Jose.
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The scene outside the courthouse May 9 was an emotional one, as volunteers and interested residents who have been following the case for more than five years shared hugs and wiped away tears.
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Sierra’s family expressed their mixed feelings of relief and lingering sadness after hearing the verdict.
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“We’re grateful for the jurors—we think they made the right decision,” said Marlene LaMar, Sierra’s mother. “It gives us peace as a family, knowing it’s not going to happen to another child.”
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Steve LaMar, Sierra’s father, said the verdict is “bittersweet.”
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“We don’t have Sierra, that’s the bitter part,” he said. “But justice is served today, for us (and) for Sierra. That gives us some form of relief, but it will never take away our grief. That will be with us forever.”
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The parents were flanked by a large group of family members, including daughter Danielle LaMar, and dedicated search volunteers.
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Sierra moved to Morgan Hill from Fremont about six months before she disappeared, with her mother and mother’s boyfriend at the time. Her father still lives in Fremont, and Sierra continued to spend time with him after she moved to Morgan Hill. Steve LaMar added that the May 9 verdict does not bring full closure to him and his family because Sierra is still missing.
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Authorities think Garcia Torres kidnapped Sierra while she was walking to her school bus stop at Palm and Dougherty avenues in north Morgan Hill the morning of March 16, 2012. He killed her hours after abducting her, and disposed of her remains in a discreet location that still has not been located, Boyd said numerous times throughout the trial.
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Without a body or murder weapon, the DA’s case against Garcia Torres relied heavily on trace DNA evidence found in the defendant’s Volkswagen Jetta, and on Sierra’s belongings that were found on the side of the road close to her neighborhood in the days following her disappearance.
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These belongings include her cell phone, found by itself in a field less than a mile from her home; and her bag containing the clothes she was wearing when she left home that day, among other personal items, according to authorities. Garcia Torres discarded these items shortly after he kidnapped Sierra, according to Boyd.
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The three women Garcia Torres tried to kidnap in the parking lots of Safeway stores on East Dunne and Tennant Avenue in 2009 testified during the trial. Detectives matched fingerprints on a stun gun, accidentally left behind by the attacker in one of the incidents, to Garcia Torres, according to testimony.
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Garcia Torres’ defense team tried to convince the jury that Sierra ran away from home. They also attempted to sow doubt on the DA’s case by arguing the DNA evidence was not conclusive and was mishandled by detectives and county crime lab experts who processed it.
Search continues
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Hundreds of volunteers over the last five years have scoured South County looking for a sign of Sierra’s whereabouts. Steve LaMar said these volunteers, who come from throughout the Bay Area, are a “special group of people” who have become “lifelong friends.”
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A core group of searchers are not planning to stop. Roger Nelson, a volunteer search coordinator, said they have received “scouting assignments” identifying possible search locations as recently as this weekend. They also plan to compare information from testimony during the trial with their previous search locations to identify possible search sites in the near future.
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They want to continue searching “to bring Sierra home to her family,” Nelson said in response to a question from the media. “The LaMars deserve justice.”
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“We will not give up,” Nelson added.
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Doug Tollis of Morgan Hill, another longtime volunteer who joined searchers in 2012, said he is in the process of coordinating another search in the coming weeks. Details about that effort will be announced as they are available.
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Patricia Blizzard, a search volunteer from Prunedale, has also faithfully followed the trial since it started Jan. 30. She also started searching for Sierra in May 2012, after she heard about the teen’s disappearance on the news.
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“Team Sierra will continue to support the family, and will continue to search for Sierra,” Blizzard said after hearing the verdict.
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Al Perez, of San Jose, is another devoted searcher who has regularly attended the trial for Garcia Torres.
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“It was a long road, but it was well worth the wait,” Perez said. “Justice is served.”
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More than 100 family members, volunteers, searchers, media people and spectators attended the reading of the verdict May 9. The court had to open an additional courtroom with a closed circuit television broadcast of the verdict to accommodate the crowd.
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Garcia Torres’ defense attorneys declined to comment on the verdict as they left the courthouse.
The trial ended last week after 13 weeks of testimony. The jury deliberated for about a day and a half, starting May 5, before notifying the judge May 8 they reached a unanimous verdict.
