Testimony in the trial for Sierra LaMar’s suspected killer continued this week, with more witnesses from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office taking the stand to answer questions about the investigation that led to the arrest of Antolin Garcia Torres.
On Feb. 14, sheriff’s deputies and sergeants spent hours in court at the San Jose Hall of Justice offering details of their surveillance of Garcia Torres in the days after Sierra disappeared March 16, 2012. Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney showed numerous video clips from a security camera outside Garcia Torres’ neighborhood, Maple Leaf RV Park in south Morgan Hill, from March 16 to March 18, 2012.
The videos showed Garcia Torres coming and going in his red Volkswagen Jetta, as well as arrivals and exits of his mother’s Toyota RAV4.
Garcia Torres went on a ski trip with a friend all day March 18, a Saturday, defense attorney Al Lopez said.
Other law enforcement officers testified about the GPS tracking device they attached to Garcia Torres’ vehicle shortly after he became a suspect in Sierra’s disappearance. Multiple agencies, including the FBI, assisted in the surveillance, which did not lead to the discovery of Sierra’s body.
Sierra disappeared at the age of 15 while she was walking from her home in north Morgan Hill to her school bus stop at the intersection of Palm and Dougherty avenues. Garcia Torres is accused of kidnapping her that morning, and later killing her. He is also accused of three unrelated kidnapping attempts in 2009, in which investigators say he attacked three women in the parking lots of two Morgan Hill Safeway stores.
Sierra was a sophomore at Sobrato High School when she disappeared. Her disappearance prompted hundreds of volunteers from throughout the Bay Area to spend thousands of hours searching private and public properties for her remains, which have not been found.
Some of the frequent volunteer searches, including Al Perez of San Jose, have loyally attended the trial for Garcia Torres since it began Jan. 30. Perez said outside the courtroom Feb. 14 that he searched with fellow volunteers on properties not only in Santa Clara County, but also from Los Banos to Watsonville.
He said he joined the search parties “for the parents” of Sierra. He and other volunteers also gained a welcome byproduct.
“We got to know each other like a big family,” he said.
Much of the testimony Feb. 15 centered around a handwritten message in one of Sierra’s school notebooks, recovered by investigators several days after she disappeared, according to various news reports. The message read, “I hate my life no one ever sees this I will be in San Francisco by 3/16/12.”
Investigators have alleged this message was a prank by Sierra’s fellow students, who might have found the notebook after she disappeared. A handwriting expert for the DA’s office testified Feb. 15 that the handwriting is not Sierra’s, according to news reports.
Other testimony Feb. 15 included an arborist who said Garcia Torres worked for him for a brief period before Sierra went missing, according to news reports. He said he gave the defendant the piece of rope later found in his trunk by police, so that he could practice tying knots.
Investigators have suggested the rope contained 58 hairs, including some of Sierra’s hair, based on DNA analysis.
The trial for Garcia Torres is expected to last at least until June. If convicted, he faces the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
