Jury selection started Monday, Oct. 17 for the trial for the man suspected of kidnapping and murdering Morgan Hill teen Sierra LaMar.
Antolin Garcia Torres, 24 of Morgan Hill, has been in custody awaiting trial since May 2012. Police and prosecutors think he kidnapped Sierra the morning of March 16, 2012, and killed her.
Sierra has not been seen since that morning, and investigators think she disappeared while walking to her school bus stop near her home at Palm and Dougherty avenues. She was a 15-year-old sophomore at Sobrato High School at the time of her disappearance.
Sierra’s remains have not been found, but authorities have connected Garcia Torres to the teen with DNA evidence, according to grand jury testimony from a 2014 hearing.
Garcia Torres is also charged with three unrelated attempted kidnappings in 2009, in the parking lots of two Safeway stores in Morgan Hill. He will be tried on these charges as well in the upcoming trial.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office is seeking the death penalty for Garcia Torres.
