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Parents of Sierra LaMar, who was murdered by Antolin Garcia Torres in 2012, found little comfort in the sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole handed to the killer at the Hall of Justice in San Jose June 5.Marlene LaMar, mother of the teen who disappeared from home when she was 15, pleaded with Garcia Torres to “make it right by being honest with himself” and reveal what he did with Sierra’s remains.“I feel at peace that he will not be on the streets and harm another child,” Marlene said outside the courthouse June 5, shortly after the jury read the verdict. “But the angst will be in our lives forever. Nothing will ever take that away.”Steve LaMar, Sierra’s father, said he is “disappointed” in the June 5 penalty verdict. The only other sentencing option available to the jury, which found Garcia Torres guilty of murdering Sierra May 9, was the death penalty.“He’ll be able to live, Sierra won’t,” Steve LaMar said June 5 to media gathered outside the Hall of Justice. “He’ll be able to breath, Sierra won’t. He will be able to eat every day, and see his family. We don’t have that.”Sierra disappeared from her north Morgan Hill home March 16, 2012 while she was walking to her school bus stop at the intersection of Palm and Dougherty avenues, according to investigators. She was a sophomore at Sobrato High School at the time she disappeared.Garcia Torres, 26 of Morgan Hill, has been in jail since he was arrested for the kidnapping and murder of Sierra in May 2012. The trial for the murder charge—as well as for three unrelated attempted kidnapping counts from 2009—began in January.The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office sought the death penalty for the murder charge.Following the three-month trial after which the jury found Garcia Torres guilty of all counts, jurors heard another two weeks’ worth of testimony in the penalty phase. The jury deliberated for three days before concluding June 5 that he should be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.Sierra’s remains have not been found, despite the efforts of hundreds of volunteers who joined organized search efforts in the months following her disappearance. Some of those volunteers have faithfully attended the trial for Garcia Torres since it began.Speaking to the media outside the courthouse June 5, D.A. Jeff Rosen declined to state outright that he was upset with the penalty verdict, and he thanked the jury for ensuring Garcia Torres “will die in prison and will never take another breath as a free man.”“This child murderer will never hurt another person, nor another family, nor another community,” Rosen said, praising the sheriff’s office and prosecutors who brought Garcia Torres to justice. “Sierra was your daughter.”Rosen noted that Sierra would be about 20 years old today, perhaps “finishing up her first year in college, or starting a shift at work” or spending time with her family or friends on a typical Monday.“But no, Sierra is not coming home. Human justice can hold the guilty accountable, but it cannot resurrect the dead,” Rosen said. “There is no joy in this verdict—only mourning (for) the death of a child who was murdered, a void that will forever ache and that can never be filled. May Sierra’s memory be a blessing for her family and our community.”Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith also spoke to the media after the verdict. She said there is some “solace” in knowing that Garcia Torres is held accountable for the “cold blooded murder” of Sierra, but she pleaded with him to tell investigators where the teen’s remains are.“If Antolin Garcia Torres has one ounce of humanity...in that cold hearted, murderer’s heart, I call on him to tell us where Sierra is,” Smith said.In response to a question from a reporter, Rosen added he remains hopeful that Garcia Torres will tell authorities where Sierra’s body is.During the testimony in the penalty phase of the trial, attorneys for Garcia Torres pointed to his background, in which he grew up in poverty and a household where domestic violence was common, to arouse sympathy for the killer.Deputy D.A. David Boyd, on the other hand, argued that Garcia Torres deserves the same fate that he gave to Sierra.As the jurors exited the courthouse, they were escorted to the adjacent parking garage by several sheriff’s deputies. They ignored reporters’ questions and requests for comment.Garcia Torres will be formally sentenced at a Sept. 14 hearing, also at the Hall of Justice.Defense attorney Al Lopez told Judge Vanessa Zecher after the penalty verdict was read June 5, that he intends to file a motion for a new trial.Lopez did not offer details, but the request for a new trial could be related to the testimony of a sheriff’s sergeant during the guilt phase of Garcia Torres’ trial. It was discovered in recent weeks that the same sergeant gave false testimony in another unrelated murder trial, motivating the judge to reverse the guilty verdicts for two suspects in that case.

Sobrato’s Jarod Hatch officially concluded his high school swim career with two Top 3 swims at the CIF State Swim Championships on May 20 in Clovis.

Kaylah Grant and Logan Flores were on opposite ends of the emotional spectrum in last Friday’s Central Coast Section Track and Field Championships at Gilroy High School.

An appeals court this week said the city council was wrong in attempting to rezone a property in north Morgan Hill—where a developer planned to build a new hotel—without sending the question to the voters.A group of local hotel owners who filed the initial lawsuit more than a year ago—after submitting and qualifying a voter referendum on the issue that was subsequently challenged by the city council—is “ecstatic” about the May 30 decision by the California Sixth Appellate District Court.“We’re ecstatic the court affirmed the notion that the voters should be able to decide,” said Asit Panwala, attorney for the Morgan Hill Hotel Coalition. “We believe in a democracy. What bothered us is the city was trying to go around the Constitution.”The issue goes back to March 2015, when the city council rezoned a 3.39-acre parcel on the southeast corner of Madrone Parkway and Lightpost Way from Industrial to General Commercial. Riverpark Hospitality requested the rezoning, and planned to build a 149-room hotel on the site.Then the Morgan Hill Hotel Coalition circulated a petition asking the council to repeal the rezoning or put the question to the voters. The coalition gathered signatures from more than 4,000 voters.When presented with the petition in July 2015, the council declined to repeal the zoning or place it on a ballot. Then in January 2016, the MHHC sued the city for violating the state elections code by rejecting the certified, voter-initiated petition.In February 2016, then Interim City Attorney Gary Baum revisited the council’s original rejection of the petition. He recommended the council approve a ballot measure asking the voters if they wanted the Riverpark property to retain its original Industrial zoning, but at the same time challenge the measure in court.The city’s challenge was heard in Santa Clara County Superior Court, which sided with the city in a March 2016 ruling that rejected the MHHC’s voter referendum.But on May 30, the Sixth District panel of three judges overturned the Superior Court’s decision.  The rezoning has not applied to the property due to the litigation, and the site remains Light Industrial.The city had argued that if the voters rejected the rezoning, that outcome could create an inconsistency between the city’s zoning code and the general plan, which is a violation of state law. In November 2014, the council changed the property’s general plan land use from Industrial to Commercial.However, the Sixth District judges said that’s an invalid argument because “the electorate may not utilize the initiative power to enact a zoning inconsistent with a general plan.” However, the referendum outcome could have permitted “the maintenance of inconsistent zoning” while the council determined how to clear up the conflict—a transition period that state law allows—the judges’ ruling states.“Since it is undisputed that (the) city could have selected any of a number of consistent zoning districts to replace the parcel’s inconsistent zoning, (state law) did not preclude (the) city or the electorate from rejecting the one selected by (the) city,” the May 30 ruling adds.Morgan Hill City Attorney Don Larkin said May 31 that it is up to the five-member city council to decide what to do next. Options include changing the zoning to a consistent classification through the normal council approval process, placing the question on an upcoming election ballot as a city referendum or appealing the Sixth District’s ruling to the California Supreme Court.The item will be agendized for an upcoming closed council session, Larkin said.“We’re going to weigh our options,” he added.The city has so far spent $71,507 on legal fees for outside counsel to address the MHHC lawsuit, Larkin said. The city council hired the firm Leone & Alberts to deal with the lawsuit.The Sixth District ruling also says the city must pay the MHHC’s legal costs. Panwala said this week he did not know how much that was.Placing the original referendum submitted by the MHHC, which was certified by the city clerk, on a ballot would have cost the city about $75,000.The MHHC has also argued that a new hotel at the site would create a glut of hotel rooms in Morgan Hill, causing existing lodging facilities to suffer financially.

A female victim in her mid-20s died after falling from the Anderson Lake bridge on East Dunne Avenue around 6 p.m. May 30 as a male companion shot video or photographs, according to local authorities.

Morgan Hill Police arrested a man accused of inappropriately touching a child of a family friend.On May 19, MHPD officers responded to the 15200 block of Monterey Road to investigate a report of child abuse, according to a May 31 press release.Officers arrived at the scene and spoke to the child’s mother, who said a male friend had inappropriately touched her daughter, police said.Suspect Ronn Williams, 59 of Morgan Hill, was arrested on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor, police said.Anyone who is a victim or has information about this case can contact MHPD Det. Pevehouse at (669) 253-4914 or the anonymous tip line at (408) 947-7867.

A prosecutor seeking the death penalty for Antolin Garcia Torres, who killed 15-year-old Sierra LaMar after kidnapping her from her Morgan Hill home, told the jury May 30 that placing him on death row is the only “just and moral” verdict in the trial’s penalty phase.