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Missing 15 Year Old Sierra Lamar ~ Her Cell Phone & A Bag With Her Clothes Found~ Suspect Antolin Garcia-Torres Arrested & Charged With Kidnapping & Murder~ Her Remains Have Not Been Found

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Missing 15 Year Old Sierra Lamar ~ Her Cell Phone & A Bag With Her Clothes Found~ Suspect Antolin Garcia-Torres Arrested & Charged With Kidnapping & Murder~ Her Remains Have Not Been Found - Page 5 Empty Update: Body found in Aromas; sheriff's have few details/Sheriff's: Premature to speculate if it's a missing person like Sierra LaMar

Post by Wrapitup Sat Sep 08, 2012 11:03 am

Posted: Friday, September 7, 2012 3:45 pm | Updated: 4:51 pm, Fri Sep 7, 2012.

by Carly Gelsinger Staff Writer

Authorities discovered a body Friday morning near Aromas, but have yet to confirm details about the victim.
While authorities do not appear to have much confirmed at this point, Santa Clara County Sgt. Jose Cardoza said it is premature to speculate about the possibility it could be a missing person such as Sierra LaMar, the 15-year-old Morgan Hill teen who went missing March 16.
Witnesses passing by in the area called 911 to report seeing what they believed was a body off Cannon Road. San Benito County sheriff’s deputies responded and immediately requested outside help, said Sgt. Jose Cardoza with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, which is assisting a short-staffed San Benito County department on the case with a crime scene investigation unit and media communication.
Cardoza said he could not confirm whether the victim was a male or female, or an estimated age. He also did not have information on a condition, such as the length of time the body may have been there. He said part of Cannon Road was considered a crime scene and has been blocked off to traffic as investigators continue their work.
Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies were called in because the San Benito sheriff's department is short staffed, officials said.
Santa Clara County sheriff’s investigators have charged Antolin Garcia-Torres in the kidnapping and murder of Sierra LaMar, even though her body has not been found.

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Missing 15 Year Old Sierra Lamar ~ Her Cell Phone & A Bag With Her Clothes Found~ Suspect Antolin Garcia-Torres Arrested & Charged With Kidnapping & Murder~ Her Remains Have Not Been Found - Page 5 Empty Dead Body Discovered in Aromas, Under Investigation, is NOT Sierra Lamar

Post by raine1953 Sat Sep 08, 2012 1:49 pm

Update, 10:30 p.m. Friday: KTVU TV is reporting that the body found about 100 feet off a road in Aromas is a woman, but is not Morgan Hill teen Sierra La Mar.

Sierra, 15, has been missing since March and is presumed dead.

Detectives are investigating the body discovered Friday as a homicide, according to KTVU TV.

Original story, 4 p.m. Friday: A dead body was found in a rural area close to the intersection of highways 101 and 156 in Aromas on Friday, local media is reporting.

Pedestrians made the grisly discovery on Cannon Road around 9:20 a.m., according to KSBW Action News 8.

Investigators have yet to release the gender, age or name of the person, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported. It was found about 100 feet off the road.

Cannon Road is closed between Highway 101 and Brown Road while investigators work, according to the Sentinel.

The probe is being led by the San Benito County Sheriff's Office with assistance from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office.
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Missing 15 Year Old Sierra Lamar ~ Her Cell Phone & A Bag With Her Clothes Found~ Suspect Antolin Garcia-Torres Arrested & Charged With Kidnapping & Murder~ Her Remains Have Not Been Found - Page 5 Empty Plea Entry in Sierra LaMar Case Could Be Delayed Several Months/Next court date is scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 26 in Department 23 of the San Jose Hall of Justice.

Post by Wrapitup Tue Sep 18, 2012 12:39 pm

By Sheila Sanchez

Sierra LaMar murder and kidnapping suspect Antolin Garcia-Torres is scheduled to appear in court at 2 p.m. Sept. 26 in Department 23 of the San Jose Hall of Justice to once again possibly enter a plea.

A hearing on Aug. 29 continued the proceedings, with his appearance waived just as was done on July 31, according to Santa Clara County prosecutor David Boyd.

Garcia-Torres waived arraignment—the advisement of the charges brought against him—in May, and then on July 31 and Aug. 29 he didn't appear in court. He's been appointed Santa Clara County Public Defender Traci Owens to represent him.

"They are very standard, routine ... it happens all the time in criminal cases," Boyd said after explaining the reasons for the delay in the plea entering. "It's on for entry of plea [on Sept. 26] ... where he'll either say guilty, which is highly unlikely, or not guilty."

Boyd said prosecutors have not yet decided whether they'll seek the death penalty for Garcia-Torres, 21, accused of kidnapping and murdering local teenager Sierra LaMar, 15, who was last seen March 16 on her way to catch the morning bus to Sobrato High School in Morgan Hill. "I'm not prepared to talk about this right now," Boyd said. "I'm not in charge of the death penalty protocol. I'm not prepared to answer that question."

The prosecutor said the plea-entering hearing will most likely be delayed many times as Garcia-Torres' attorney need time.

Criminal attorney and legal analyst Steven Clark, who's been present during the proceedings, explained the plea triggers many timelines in the case. Once entered, Garcia-Torres can either "waive time," or not, which means the preliminary hearing could take place 10 days after the entering of the plea.

Clark said the defense could try to get a quick prelminary hearing by delaying the entering of the plea and then getting the preliminary hearing 10 days after such motion. "You don't want to enter a plea until you have to," Clark said.

Presiding Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Jerome Nadler is also not going to force the defense to enter the plea, allowing the defense to continue as long as practical considering that the case is quite complicated and that the voluminous investigation is ongoing, Clark explained.

Unlike judges in other counties who will ask for a plea by a certain time, Judge Nadler will not require the defense to enter the plea by a specific date, he noted.

"They [the defense] could go on for several more months," Clark said. "This is just a monumental investigation. This is not a routine murder case. It's a very complicated case in which there are multiple levels of the investigation ... This case is far from being resolved because they're still looking for the body."

Clark indicated the public defender will also want to discuss other issues with Garcia-Torres such as mental health matters before entering a plea.

When the plea is entered, Boyd will have to prove during the preliminary hearing that Garcia-Torres by a "reasonable sufficient standard" committed the crime. "The DA will have to put on enough evidence to hold the defendant to answer for trial that's not beyond a reasonable doubt," Clark said.

About the death penalty, Clark said the DA's Office has a group of senior prosecutors who would review such a request should it be warranted and possible to obtain.

One of the factors in whether prosecutors would pursue capital punishment is input from the victim's family because as soon as it's sought, the case could go on for decades before a final resolution due to appeals. "A lot of families don't want to have that lingering kind of litigation ... ," Clark said.

Garcia-Torres, who lived with his mother, pregnant girlfriend and child a few miles away from LaMar's home on Maple Leaf RV Park on Monterey Road, is being held at the Santa Clara County Jail without bail.

Searches for LaMar continue all over South County on Saturdays, with Wednesday searches recently discontinued.

County sheriff's investigators allege Garcia-Torres' DNA was found on the girl's clothing and her DNA found in the suspect's Volkswagen Jetta. He was arrested May 21 at Tennant Avenue and Monterey Road in Morgan Hill outside the Safeway store where he was formerly employed.

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This poor family is going through hell between not knowing where their daughter is and the constant court delays.
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Missing 15 Year Old Sierra Lamar ~ Her Cell Phone & A Bag With Her Clothes Found~ Suspect Antolin Garcia-Torres Arrested & Charged With Kidnapping & Murder~ Her Remains Have Not Been Found - Page 5 Empty Father of accused killer of Morgan Hill teen Sierra LaMar goes on trial for molestation

Post by Wrapitup Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:55 am

By Tracey Kaplan
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Posted: 09/19/2012 07:24:28 PM PDT
Updated: 09/19/2012 11:15:11 PM PDT

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Genaro Garcia Fernandez. (Courtesy Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office)

Defense attorneys frequently bring up an accused killer's beleaguered childhood, hoping to soften up a judge or jury and secure a more lenient sentence. But even before Antolin Garcia-Torres is tried next year in the killing of 15-year-old Sierra LaMar, his dysfunctional family background surfaced Wednesday in a highly unusual way -- during his father's trial on child molestation charges.

Genaro Garcia Fernandez, 51, is charged in Santa Clara County Superior Court with 18 sex crimes against two female relatives. Prosecutors allege he first fondled the primary victim when she was 4 years old and began raping her periodically when she was just 7 -- in the same small San Martin home where his son, Garcia-Torres, grew up.

If Fernandez is convicted, he will spend the rest of his life in prison. Garcia-Torres, 21, is also facing a life sentence. Prosecutors allege he kidnapped and killed LaMar, who disappeared from Morgan Hill on March 16. Her body has never been found. But her DNA was in Garcia-Torres' car.


The jury of 10 women and two men in Fernandez's trial will not be told of his connection to the accused killer. Garcia-Torres' father's history also will not figure in the son's trial, though it may come up during sentencing if he is convicted of killing LaMar.
Garcia-Torres' family background may ultimately be seen as grounds for sympathy or merely as the pathological root of his suspected criminality. But his father's case offers a glimpse into what life was like in the family home where Garcia-Torres was raised.

'Broke cycle'
According to court documents, Fernandez was convicted during the 1980s of vehicular manslaughter while under the influence of alcohol. It was unclear Wednesday how much time he served in prison away from his family.

The female relative who claims Fernandez molested her for years came forward last summer, about 11 months before Garcia-Torres was arrested on suspicion of killing the Morgan Hill teen. The molestation charges against Fernandez were also filed well before his son was arrested.

In a powerful 20-minute opening statement, prosecutor Murat Ozgur said the young woman reported the abuse to protect her own children after living for years with an unbearable secret that poisoned her childhood.

"She decided this secret could no longer be kept," he said. "She broke the cycle."

Ozgur said Fernandez eventually apologized to the young woman in a phone call police recorded and also in a letter. But Ozgur said it wasn't a true apology.

"He explained, she wanted it, she liked it," Ozgur told an attentive jury of 10 women and two men. "He claimed he didn't take her virginity."
According to the prosecutor's translation of the letter Fernandez wrote in Spanish, Garcia-Torres' father also said, "You know we did have sex, but it was for the pleasure of the two." crazy3

Defense attorney Thompson Sharkey reserved his opening statement until after the prosecutor presents his case. His client, dressed in a baggy black suit and bearing a stubbly mustache, spent much of the day hunched over, avoiding the eyes of the witnesses, including his wife and accusers.

Blocked the door
But the 5-feet-4-inch Fernandez, according to the witnesses, ruled his house with an iron hand.

"He hit me," his wife Laura Torres tearfully testified, "a lot."

Speaking in a monotone that belied the gravity of her words, the second accuser said she once saw Fernandez whip the other victim with a "cord." She also said the primary victim would basically barricade her bedroom by pulling out the drawers of a bureau to block the entryway.
When she was 5 years old, the primary victim first reported that Fernandez had been touching her inappropriately.

"When I confronted her father, he said she had been swinging outside on the swing and maybe just had a rash," on her bottom, Torres testified.

But she remained mistrustful, recalling one incident when she came home to a terrified little girl. Fernandez's wife said she was so suspicious, she finally took out a figurine of Christ and asked her husband to speak the truth.

"He swore to me by Christ and his mother he had never touched her," Torres said.

But her worries didn't disappear entirely, especially after her husband became inexplicably enraged when the accuser -- by then a teenager -- went out on a date.

When Torres tried to reassure him it was normal, "He would tell me what I wanted was for her to be a whore like I was.''

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Missing 15 Year Old Sierra Lamar ~ Her Cell Phone & A Bag With Her Clothes Found~ Suspect Antolin Garcia-Torres Arrested & Charged With Kidnapping & Murder~ Her Remains Have Not Been Found - Page 5 Empty Plea Entry in Sierra LaMar Case Could Be Delayed

Post by raine1953 Wed Sep 26, 2012 1:07 am

Sierra LaMar murder suspect Antolin Garcia-Torres is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday to possibly enter a plea.

Torres, who is the sole suspect in the murder case of the Fremont native, in scheduled to appear in Department 23 of the San Jose Hall of Justice at 2 p.m. Wednesday. He is charged with murder with the special circumstance of kidnapping.

Santa Clara County Prosecutor David Boyd said it's "standard, routine" for a plea entry to be delayed in criminal cases such as this.

Boyd said prosecutors have not yet decided whether they'll seek the death penalty for Garcia-Torres, 21, accused of kidnapping and murdering 15-year-old Sierra who was last seen March 16 on her way to catch the morning bus to Sobrato High School in Morgan Hill.

Criminal attorney and legal analyst Steven Clark, who's been present during the proceedings but is not directly working on the case, explained the plea triggers many timelines in the case.

"You don't want to enter a plea until you have to," Clark said. "[The defense] could go on for several more months. ...This is just a monumental investigation. This is not a routine murder case. It's a very complicated case in which there are multiple levels of the investigation ... This case is far from being resolved because they're still looking for the body."

Garcia-Torres, who lived with his mother, pregnant girlfriend and child a few miles away from Sierra's home on Maple Leaf RV Park on Monterey Road, is being held at the Santa Clara County Jail without bail.

Searches for Sierra continue in the Morgan Hill area on Saturdays. Wednesday searches were recently discontinued.

County sheriff's investigators allege Garcia-Torres' DNA was found on the girl's clothing and her DNA found in the suspect's Volkswagen Jetta. He was arrested May 21 at Tennant Avenue and Monterey Road in Morgan Hill outside the Safeway store where he was formerly employed.
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Missing 15 Year Old Sierra Lamar ~ Her Cell Phone & A Bag With Her Clothes Found~ Suspect Antolin Garcia-Torres Arrested & Charged With Kidnapping & Murder~ Her Remains Have Not Been Found - Page 5 Empty Sierra LaMar suspect's father convicted of child molestation

Post by Wrapitup Wed Sep 26, 2012 9:04 pm

By Tracey Kaplan
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Posted: 09/26/2012 12:35:28 PM PDT
Updated: 09/26/2012 06:03:57 PM PDT

MORGAN HILL -- After deliberating for two days, a jury on Wednesday convicted the father of teenager Sierra LaMar's suspected killer for sexually molesting a female relative when she was a child, including repeatedly raping her starting when she was just 7.

The case against Genaro Garcia Fernandez, 51, offered a glimpse into the dysfunctional childhood of his son, Antolin Garcia-Torres, who is charged with kidnapping and killing LaMar, 15.

Fernandez's victim testified he first fondled her when she was 4 years old -- in the same small San Martin home where his son, Garcia-Torres, grew up. Fernandez confessed in a phone call recorded by police and wrote a letter of apology to the young woman.

He was charged with 18 felony counts involving two victims. The jury found him guilty of 17 counts against the primary victim. But it acquitted him of one count of molesting another child, meaning the multiple victim allegation also doesn't stand.

He faces a life sentence after the jury of 10 women and two men found him guilty.

His son would also face a life sentence if he is convicted. LaMar disappeared from Morgan Hill on March 16. Her body has never been found. But her DNA was in Garcia-Torres' car.

Criminal history
The jury in Fernandez's trial was not told of his connection to the accused killer. Garcia-Torres' father's history also will not figure in the son's trial, though it may come up during sentencing if he is convicted of killing Sierra.

Garcia-Torres' family background may ultimately be seen as grounds for sympathy or merely as the pathological root of his suspected criminality. But his father's case helps illuminate what life was like in the family home where Garcia-Torres was raised.

According to court documents, Fernandez was convicted during the 1980s of vehicular manslaughter while under the influence of alcohol. It was unclear Tuesday how much time he served in prison away from his family.

The female relative who claims Fernandez molested her for years came forward last summer, about 11 months before Garcia-Torres was arrested on suspicion of killing the Morgan Hill teen. The molestation charges against Fernandez were also filed well before his son was arrested.

The young woman reported the abuse to protect her own children after living for years with an unbearable secret that poisoned her childhood.

Prosecutor Murat Ozgur said Fernandez eventually apologized to the young woman, but essentially claimed it was her fault.

"He explained, she wanted it, she liked it, " Ozgur told an attentive jury of 10 women and two men. "He claimed he didn't take her virginity."

According to the prosecutor's translation of the letter Fernandez wrote in Spanish, Garcia-Torres' father also said, "You know we did have sex, but it was for the pleasure of the two."

Grave words
The case was so strong against Fernandez that his defense attorney, Thompson Sharkey, did not put any witnesses on the stand or make an opening statement.

During the trial, witnesses testified that the 5-feet-4-inch Fernandez ruled his house with an iron hand.
"He hit me, " his wife Laura Torres tearfully testified, "a lot."

Speaking in a monotone that belied the gravity of her words, the second accuser said she once saw Fernandez whip the other victim with a "cord." She also said the primary victim would basically barricade her bedroom by pulling out the drawers of a bureau to block the entryway.

When she was 5 years old, the primary victim first reported that Fernandez had been touching her inappropriately.

"When I confronted her father, he said she had been swinging outside on the swing and maybe just had a rash, "on her bottom," Torres testified.

But she remained mistrustful, recalling one incident when she came home to a terrified little girl. Fernandez's wife said she was so suspicious, she finally took out a figurine of Christ and asked her husband to speak the truth.

"He swore to me by Christ and his mother he had never touched her," Torres said.

But her worries didn't disappear entirely, especially after her husband became inexplicably enraged when the accuser -- by then a teenager -- went out on a date.

When Torres tried to reassure him teen dating was normal, "He would tell me what I wanted was for her to be a whore like I was."

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Missing 15 Year Old Sierra Lamar ~ Her Cell Phone & A Bag With Her Clothes Found~ Suspect Antolin Garcia-Torres Arrested & Charged With Kidnapping & Murder~ Her Remains Have Not Been Found - Page 5 Empty Sierra LaMar's friends, family cling to hope as girl's 16th birthday nears

Post by raine1953 Thu Oct 18, 2012 11:36 am

FREMONT -- A teenager's 16th birthday is supposed to be a sweet celebration. But Sierra LaMar's "sweet 16" on Friday looms instead as a dark reminder that the Fremont-raised girl who disappeared seven months ago still has not been found.
"We're not in a real celebratory mood," said Marlene LaMar, Sierra's mother. "That's probably going to be the toughest day in terms of missing her."
There have been many tough, emotional days since March 16, the day Sierra disappeared while trying to catch a school bus in Morgan Hill, where she'd moved five months earlier with her mother. But her birthday comes at an especially rough time. Once-regular Wednesday searches have been halted while the remaining Saturday searches

of Morgan Hill's rural roads and fields have yielded little. Meanwhile, public interest in the case has slowly but steadily waned. A suspect has been arrested and charged with her murder and kidnapping but that has not brought new information about her whereabouts.
In Fremont, the city that Sierra considered home, those who know her best say they will never rest until she is found. Until then, a version of Sierra is always with them, they say, as memories of her often come rushing back involuntarily when they drive by her old Tri-City-area hangouts or hear her favorite songs.
Trudie Matheson, a retired second-grade teacher, remembers a quiet, sensitive little girl at Parkmont Elementary. She recalls how Sierra -- without any
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prompting from adults -- helped a boy in her class who had shown major behavioral problems. She took him under her wing and tutored him, and the boy's rowdy behavior started to improve.
"She was sensitive to his needs," Matheson said. "Someone who was as calm and quiet as she was, it would be natural that she would help him. She just naturally got along with everybody."
Wendy Haddock, Sierra's dance instructor at Mission Dance & Performing Arts, remembers "a shy girl" of 11 or 12 on the verge of coming out of her shell. She was eager to please yet wasn't afraid to slightly roll her eyes when instructors raised their voices, and she excelled at lyrical performances, where students' self-expression is most on display. "Sierra was a really good dancer," Haddock said.
Friends say that, by the time Sierra began attending Washington High School two years ago, her shyness had given way to a witty, outsize personality that "drew the laughter out" of quieter kids. "She enjoys being silly," Marlene LaMar said. "She feels she can lift anyone's spirit when they're down."
Channah Foreman, 17, befriended Sierra while both were on the Washington High cheer team. Foreman said Sierra never missed a chance to make friends laugh by rapping along to her favorite song: "Gucci Gucci" by Kreayshawn, a female Oakland rapper. "People called her 'Little Kreay' because she knew all the words," she said. "It was always funny to watch."
Sixteen-year-old Claire Normoyle said she met Sierra in a Centerville Junior High School math class, where the instructor separated them "because we were always talking and passing notes." Today, she thinks about Sierra when shopping at NewPark Mall or walking with friends to the McDonald's on Mowry Avenue and Fremont Boulevard, where the pair often hung out.
While her "rap career" was a running joke she shared with friends, Sierra's real dream was to be a makeup artist, and her interest in fashion was growing and growing.
Sierra's friends say the trauma of her disappearance has changed them. Foreman was at another friend's Fremont house when she learned Sierra went missing. "I pretty much can't ever go back to that house now," Foreman said. "Sierra was like the younger sister I never had, that's basically all I can say."
Normoyle said she now is a much more cautious person. "I used to jog by myself or walk my dogs by myself, but not anymore," Normoyle said. "I'd love to find Sierra. Until then, I'll be worried about her, 24/7."
Through it all, Sierra's immediate family -- sister Danielle; and parents Steve and Marlene LaMar, who are divorced -- are doing their best to remain positive.
Danielle, 22, said she tries to give emotional support to her parents. "But every once in a while we all break down," she said. "We can't always stay strong."
Antolin Garcia Torres, 21, of Morgan Hill, was arrested May 21 and charged with murder and kidnapping in connection with Sierra's disappearance. Five months after his arrest, Torres still has not entered a plea to the charges. Until there is progress, the LaMars say they will avoid Torres' legal proceedings, preferring to focus on finding Sierra.
They credit the volunteers at the Morgan Hill search center, based at the now-closed Burnett Elementary School, for always boosting their spirits.
Carol Salinger, a Fremont neighbor of Steve LaMar's, has been a regular volunteer searcher from the beginning. She said she makes the 80-mile round-trip drive between Fremont and Morgan Hill almost every Saturday because "this is the kind of thing that people who know each other need to do for each other."
Salinger -- echoing nearly everyone close to the LaMars -- said she is not giving up hope that one day Sierra will be found. "Miracles happen every day," she said. "The best thing is for us to know what happened and to get a resolution."
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Sierra LaMar, (left) is pictured here with her father, Steve LaMar, and her sister, Danielle LaMar. (Courtesy of Steve LaMar)Missing 15 Year Old Sierra Lamar ~ Her Cell Phone & A Bag With Her Clothes Found~ Suspect Antolin Garcia-Torres Arrested & Charged With Kidnapping & Murder~ Her Remains Have Not Been Found - Page 5 P
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Missing 15 Year Old Sierra Lamar ~ Her Cell Phone & A Bag With Her Clothes Found~ Suspect Antolin Garcia-Torres Arrested & Charged With Kidnapping & Murder~ Her Remains Have Not Been Found - Page 5 Empty Hearing scheduled today for suspect in murder of Sierra LaMar

Post by Wrapitup Tue Oct 30, 2012 12:33 pm

Posted: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 9:44 am | Updated: 10:13 am, Tue Oct 30, 2012.

The plea hearing for the suspect in the kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old Sierra LaMar is scheduled for today at 2 p.m. in the San Jose Hall of Justice.

Antolin Garcia Torres, 21, is charged with the murder, with a special circumstance of kidnapping, of Sierra – who is a sophomore at Sobrato High School. Torres waived his right to appear in July, on Aug. 29 and on Sept. 26. Garcia Torres has not appeared in court since his arraignment in May.

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Post by Wrapitup Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:47 am

Sierra LaMar Murder Suspect's Plea Hearing Postponed, Again

Posted: Oct 30, 2012 7:45 PM CDT
Updated: Oct 30, 2012 7:45 PM CDT
By Jacqueline Tualla - email

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The man accused of kidnapping and murdering Morgan Hill teen Sierra LaMar once again ditched his court appearance on Tuesday.

According to the Santa Clara County Court clerk, this is the seventh time since May 24 attorneys for Antolin Garcia-Torres asked to postpone his plea hearing.

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Post by Wrapitup Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:49 am

Hearing continued for Sierra LaMar murder suspect

Posted: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 4:50 pm | Updated: 5:20 pm, Tue Oct 30, 2012.
by Michael Moore

Antolin Garcia Torres, the Morgan Hill man accused of kidnapping and murdering Sierra LaMar, again waived his right to appear in court Tuesday.

Garcia Torres’ hearing for Tuesday afternoon was postponed to Dec. 10 at 9:30 a.m. at the Hall of Justice in San Jose.

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Missing 15 Year Old Sierra Lamar ~ Her Cell Phone & A Bag With Her Clothes Found~ Suspect Antolin Garcia-Torres Arrested & Charged With Kidnapping & Murder~ Her Remains Have Not Been Found - Page 5 Empty Sierra LaMar suspect charged with three attempted kidnappings

Post by Wrapitup Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:08 am

By Tracey Kaplan
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Posted: 11/13/2012 07:05:50 PM PST

The man accused of killing Morgan Hill teenager Sierra LaMar has been charged with trying to kidnap three other girls during three separate carjackings.

Authorities learned of the previous incidents dating back to 2009 while investigating LaMar's March 16 disappearance.

Antolin Garcia Torres, now 21, was 17 at the time. But a juvenile court judge has granted the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office permission to charge him as an adult.

Two of the incidents took place on March 19, 2009, one of which involved a stun gun, sources said. The other incident occurred a few days later, on March 26, 2009. Investigators previously said they were looking into whether Garcia Torres -- who once worked at Safeway -- was behind attacks at at Safeway stores in the Morgan Hill area in March 2009..

Those three 2009 attacks made some residents afraid to to go to the grocery store and led police to issue automated phone alerts to keep residents up to date.

One attack occurred about 8:40 p.m. at the Safeway at 840 E. Dunne Ave. An 18-year-old Gilroy woman told police that soon after she parked behind the store, a man slipped into the back seat of her car. At that moment, she was retrieving a pocket knife from the glove compartment because she was aware of the attacks.

The man grabbed her right hand and opened the folding blade with his thumb. He forced her hand toward her throat and placed the blade on her neck. He didn't speak, but hit her on the leg and "made grunting noises," the police report states. She screamed, startling the man, police said. He jumped out of the car, and ran away.

In a separate incident, a 46-year-old San Martin woman was attacked while walking to her car about 11:30 p.m. at the Safeway at Tennant Station. A man who apparently had entered her car through an unlocked door attacked her, hitting her with his fist and using a stun gun on her head and neck -- but he said nothing. He did not demand anything and fled when a passer-by pulled up and heard the woman screaming.

Earlier that same evening, a 36-year-old Morgan Hill woman was leaving the Dunne Avenue Safeway when she noticed a man walking behind her. As she walked faster, the man also sped up, she told police. After she got into her car and locked the door, the man tried to open the driver's side door. He did not say anything, and the woman drove away.

LaMar, 15, vanished March 16 on her way to a rural bus stop south of Bailey Road around the corner from her home. Her body has not been found despite extensive searches by sheriff's deputies and a cadre of volunteers.

Garcia-Torres' DNA was discovered on Sierra's clothes that were found discarded in a field not far from the bus stop. Sierra's DNA was found in the suspect's red Volkswagen Jetta. He was arrested in May.

Prosecutors are still weighing whether to seek the death penalty if Garcia-Torres is convicted of LaMar's murder. Technically, with the additional charges, an extra 14 years and eight months would be appended to either the death sentence or life without the possibility of parole.

Nearly six months after his arrest, Torres still has not entered a plea to the charges, which is not unusual in a case of this magnitude. He is expected to be arraigned December 10.


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Why doesn't this surprise me? Like father, like son! :pervert:
I doubt she w/ever be found. I think she was trafficked out like Hailey Dunn.
my 2 cents
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Post by Wrapitup Wed Nov 14, 2012 2:41 pm

Sierra LaMar slaying suspect charged in attempted kidnappings

November 14, 2012 | 9:53 am

The man accused of killing 15-year-old Sierra LaMar of Morgan Hill has been charged in three attempted kidnappings at Safeway stores that left a Northern California community on edge.

Investigators linked Antolin Garcia-Torres, 21, to the three 2009 attacks while investigating the LaMar case, the Mercury News of San Jose reported. Garcia-Torres was 17 at the time of the attacks but will be charged as an adult, the newspaper said.

The first incident occurred the evening of March 19, 2009, the Mercury News reported, when a 36-year-old woman told police she noticed a man walking behind her as she left a Safeway on Dunne Avenue in Morgan Hill.

The woman said the man began walking faster as she did, and after she got in her car, he tried to open the driver's side door. She had locked it, however, and drove away.

A few hours later, at another Safeway store about two miles away, a man attacked a 46-year-old woman as she got into her car, hitting her head with his fist and using a stun gun on her head and neck, the newspaper reported. The man ran when a passerby approached the vehicle after hearing the woman's screams.

Police said the suspect apparently got into the vehicle through an unlocked door.

The third attack occurred a week later, back at the Dunne Avenue Safeway, the Mercury News reported. An 18-year-old woman told police that after she parked behind the store, a man got into the back seat of her car. At the time, she was getting a pocket knife from her glove box — protection she carried after hearing of the first two attacks.

The man grabbed the knife, forced the woman's hand to her throat and placed the blade to her neck, the newspaper said. He hit her leg and "made grunting noises," but as soon as the woman screamed, he jumped out of the car and ran.

The string of attacks made some residents afraid to go to the store, the newspaper said, and prompted automated phone alerts from police to "keep residents up to date."

After Garcia-Torres — who used to work at a Safeway in Morgan Hill — was arrested on May 21 this year, investigators said DNA evidence connected him to a March 2009 attack, but did not elaborate on the crime.

Authorities linked Garcia-Torres to LaMar after finding his DNA on the girl's clothes, which were found neatly folded in a bag not far from where she was last seen. The high school cheerleader vanished the morning of March 16 on her way to school.

The teenager's body has not been found, despite extensive searches by both police and volunteers.

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Post by Wrapitup Fri Nov 16, 2012 7:30 pm

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Post by Wrapitup Fri Nov 16, 2012 7:32 pm

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Post by Wrapitup Mon Dec 10, 2012 9:07 am

Sierra LaMar murder suspect back in court

Sunday, December 09, 2012

MORGAN HILL, Calif. (KGO) -- The man charged with the murder of missing Morgan Hill teenager Sierra LaMar is scheduled to return to court Monday to face additional kidnapping charges.

The charges are connected to three incidents back in 2009 that investigators say happened when Antolin Garcia Torres was 17-years-old. One involved a stun gun.

Although no body has been found, the now 21-year-old Torres was arrested in May for Sierra's murder based on DNA evidence.

A fundraiser was held Saturday night to support ongoing efforts to find her. The ice skating event took place at Shark's Ice in San Jose. Organizers are holding out hope for the teen's safe return.

Sierra vanished on March 16th while walking from home to her school bus stop.

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Post by Wrapitup Mon Dec 10, 2012 6:54 pm

UPDATE: Sierra LaMar murder suspect declines to appear in court
Garcia Torres will be re-arraigned Wednesday on new charges


Posted: Friday, December 7, 2012 1:37 pm | Updated: 3:55 pm, Mon Dec 10, 2012.

by Michael Moore
The Morgan Hill man accused of kidnapping and murdering missing teen Sierra LaMar again waived his right to appear at a hearing this morning at the Hall of Justice in San Jose, authorities said.

Antolin Garcia Torres, 21, was scheduled for a plea hearing in the murder case, as well as three unrelated attempted kidnappings that happened in Morgan Hill in 2009.

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Post by raine1953 Thu Dec 13, 2012 11:38 pm

SAN JOSE (KCBS) – The man accused of kidnapping and murdering missing Morgan Hill teen Sierra LaMar once again failed to enter a plea in a brief court appearance on Wednesday, as he faces new charges.
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Post by Wrapitup Fri Dec 14, 2012 3:37 am

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Post by Wrapitup Fri Dec 14, 2012 4:13 am

December 13, 2012

Antolin Garcia Torres, charged in the alleged murder and kidnapping of missing Morgan Hill teen Sierra LaMar, was arraigned Wednesday on three new counts of attempted kidnapping in commission of a carjacking, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office.

Torres, who leaned against a doorway during the brief hearing in Santa Clara County Superior Court, waived his right to a preliminary hearing within 60 days of the arraignment, Deputy District Attorney David Boyd said.

Torres, who has yet to enter a plea on any of the charges, answered "Yes, your honor" and "Thank you, your honor" after Santa Clara County Judge Jerome Nadler asked him if he understood he would be giving up his right to a preliminary hearing within 60 days.

Nadler then set a hearing for Feb. 6 when Torres may enter a plea to murder and kidnapping charges related to the disappearance of LaMar, and the three new charges stemming from alleged attacks on three women in Morgan Hill in 2009.

A preliminary hearing on all of the allegations could be set after Torres enters a plea, Boyd said. Torres, 21, was arrested on May 22 in connection with LaMar's disappearance.

The 15-year-old was last seen March 16 at a bus stop in Morgan Hill and prosecutors charge that Torres kidnapped and killed her and hid her body.

The charges of attempted kidnapping in commission of a carjacking came from alleged attacks on three women on March 19 and 26, 2009, in the parking lots of two Safeway stores in Morgan Hill, according to prosecutors.

After Torres was arrested in the suspected kidnap-murder of LaMar in May, police determined that he resembled the likeness of a sketch made of the suspect based on descriptions from victims in the 2009 attacks, which led to his arrest on those charges.

Torres used to work at a Safeway store on Tennant Avenue where one of the alleged attacks occurred. The defendant was 17 at the time of three 2009 incidents, but Boyd received permission from a juvenile court judge to charge him as an adult.

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Post by Wrapitup Thu Feb 07, 2013 3:03 pm

By Sheila Sanchez Email the author 8:29 am

The death penalty could be sought for Morgan Hill teen Sierra LaMar's suspected kidnapper and killer Antolin Garcia Torres, a county prosecutor said Wednesday.

"Death can be sought [in this case] but a decision to seek death has not been made," said Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney David Boyd.

Boyd's comments came after a brief court hearing in Department 23 of the San Jose Hall of Justice where Garcia Torres' new plea hearing was set for 9 a.m. April 4.

Boyd said such a hearing will be preceded by a motion's hearing for subpoenaed records by Garcia Torres' attorneys on Feb. 20.

The prosecutor said he had agreed to file his response to their motion by the end of this week.

Every document being filed on the case is being posted online due to Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Richard Loftis Jr.'s order that all records in the case must be scanned and uploaded to the Santa Clara County Superior Court's website.

Garcia Torres, 21, was arrested May 21, 2012 and has sat incarcerated for more than eight months without entering a plea, but Boyd said such a delay in not unusual.

Sierra, who was 15 at the time, vanished the morning of March 16, 2012 on her way to Sobrato High School in Morgan Hill. Her body is still missing.

His DNA was found on the girl's clothing located in a field near her school bus stop and two miles away from her home. And Sierra's DNA was found in Garcia Torres' red Volkswagen Jetta.

Torres lived about seven miles from Sierra's home. In April of 2012, investigators seized the vehicle and submitted it to the crime lab for processing and analysis.

"When you're dealing with a case that involves a kidnapping and a murder and special circumstances where death can be sought this is quite common," he said.

Boyd said he believes Garcia Torres is guilty and wants to make sure he's held accountable for the crime.

If the death penalty is not sought and he's found guilty of the charges, he could face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

If Boys seeks the death penalty, a trial could take longer to occur. If not, a trial could come sooner, he said.

Garcia Torres is also facing felony kidnap and carjacking charges related to three incidents in 2009 in Morgan Hill, where's he's from.

Tom Barrett, of Hollister, drove all the way to San Jose Wednesday to attend the hearing. He said he's been helping search for Sierra's body since she was reported missing.

"I'm one of her searchers," he said. "We're still looking for her, but our hope is starting to diminish."

Barrett said missing-children advocate Marc Klaas has worked hard to bring attention to the case and has been attending court proceedings.

About 40 people gather at Morgan Hill's Burnett Elementary School to search for the girl on Saturdays in South County, he added.

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Post by raine1953 Wed Mar 13, 2013 12:01 am

This Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of the disappearance of Sierra LaMar.

Sierra, who grew up in Fremont, vanished the morning of March 16, 2012 on her way to school in Morgan Hill. She was 15 at the time.

To commemorate LaMar's life, the LaMar family will hold a press conference Saturday at The Sierra LaMar Search Center at 85 Tilton Rd. in Morgan Hill at 9:00 a.m, followed by a ceremonial balloon release.

Later in the afternoon, from 1-5 p.m., a fundraiser called Hope to Find Sierra will be held at Niles Hall, 37270 Niles Blvd. in Fremont featuring live music by Eddie Ramirez and Davina Joy, bounce houses, face painting, hula dancers and a raffle. The event will begin after the day's search for Sierra ends.

“Searching for Sierra has been a long journey,” said her mother Marlene. “The loss and pain have been indescribable.”

Though her body has not been found, authorities have ruled Sierra’s disappearance a homicide.

Antolin Garcia Torres was arrested May 21, 2012 and charged with Sierra's kidnapping and murder. He has not yet entered a plea but is scheduled to return to court on April 4.
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Post by Wrapitup Wed Mar 13, 2013 1:11 am

I think that idiot sexually trafficked her out. MOO.
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Post by raine1953 Fri Mar 15, 2013 12:39 am

MORGAN HILL -- For months, Sierra LaMar's mother couldn't bring herself back to the intersection of Dougherty and Palm. She would break into a sweat, her heart would race, she could barely breathe. This was Sierra's school bus stop, the place the 15-year-old was heading early that foggy March morning when she vanished.
But this week, one year after Sierra's disappearance, Marlene LaMar took a Xanax and a deep breath, then stepped out of her car and walked up to the quiet corner surrounded by farm fields just south of San Jose. Bouquets of dead flowers littered the earth. A weather-beaten poster of Sierra, the smiling cheerleader, clung to a telephone pole.
"I just think about her coming to the bus stop every day never thinking anything like this would ever happen," said LaMar, her eyes welling with tears.
It has been an anguishing year, with tragedy compounded by another heartbreak, vivid dreams of her daughter and a gut-wrenching move from her home that put most of Sierra's belongings, including her Marilyn Monroe posters and zebra-striped bedspread, into storage.
Still, LaMar agreed to pose for a photo here, hoping that someone might see it and remember something, anything, that could help bring her daughter home. Her only solace, if it's possible for a mother who lost her daughter to find any, is at the search center in Morgan Hill, a place that "nurtures my soul," she said, where every Saturday about 40 volunteers still search the culverts and gullies and orchards and fields.
The one who police believe knows Sierra's whereabouts isn't talking. Prosecutors and sheriff's investigators say Antolin Garcia Torres, a 21-year-old stranger who worked odd jobs and lived just seven miles away in Morgan Hill, abducted and killed her. They have found no body, no blood. But her clothes, purse and cellphone were discovered days later tossed into two fields nearby. Garcia Torres' DNA was found on her clothing, authorities say, and her DNA was found in his Volkswagen Jetta.
After the DNA match, sheriff's deputies followed Garcia Torres for weeks, hoping he would lead them to Sierra's body. During interviews after his arrest, he did not confess.
"He was not going to tell us," Sheriff Laurie Smith said in an interview this week. "We used every technique that was legal."

The case of the teenager with the long, dark hair and beautiful smile drew national attention after she disappeared March 16, 2012. About 750 volunteers showed up the first week to help search, including former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith. It was the kind of crime that is so vile, so repugnant, that Garcia Torres is kept in protective custody at the Santa Clara County Jail, away from inmates who don't treat child-killing suspects kindly.
Maybe if Garcia Torres was thrown into the general jail population, "that would bring answers very quickly," said Marc Klaas, who has been a key part of the search for Sierra and whose daughter, Polly, was kidnapped and killed nearly 20 years ago.
"How cruel," Klaas said. "On top of everything else he's done, he allows the family to sit out there with these great unanswered questions."
Threatening the death penalty might serve as a powerful motivator as well, Klaas said. The District Attorney's Office, however, has yet to decide on that. Prosecutors still are going through mountains of

Marlene LaMar, mother of missing teen Sierra LaMar, grasps a keychain in San Jose on March 13, 2013. This keychain was given to her by Sierra before she disappeared. Marlene was heartbroken when she misplaced the keychain, but she recently found it. Antolin Garcia Torres has been charged with the murder of Sierra. Her body has not been found. (Gary Reyes/Staff)
evidence and investigative reports. A message left with Traci Owens, Garcia Torres's defense lawyer, wasn't returned this week. The suspect has yet to enter a plea on the murder charge. His next hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. April 4.
Another heartbreak
In the meantime, Marlene LaMar is trying desperately to hold on to threads of hope. She had already been divorced from Sierra's father, who joins the searches on weekends. Her older daughter, Danielle, who is studying at Sacramento State, struggles with nightmares of what might have happened to her sister. And months after Sierra vanished, LaMar and her boyfriend split up. They had shared a home with Sierra around the corner from the bus stop.
"I felt abandoned, really abandoned," she said. "He was a major support system, in addition to my family. It was a very difficult period. It's still difficult. There's still healing."
They had only recently moved from Fremont to the rural area near Morgan Hill so Sierra could go to a better high school, LaMar said. That day started typically, as LaMar left early for her job as an occupational therapist in Fremont. Sierra was awake and getting ready for school when her mother left. When LaMar came home that afternoon, the house was dark, and Sierra, whom LaMar expected to find making a snack, was nowhere to be found. A frantic search began. Sheriff's deputies swarmed the neighborhood. Her belongings were found in the fields within days, the DNA was matched within weeks, and by May, just two months later, Garcia Torres was under arrest.
Since then, LaMar said she feels like the legal case has been stagnant. Ten months after Garcia Torres' arrest, no plea has been entered.
"Once the proceedings start, then I feel that maybe he will open up," she said, and they can find her daughter. "I don't feel it's productive to have a delay like this. I feel that the victims have been put thoroughly on hold."

Deputy district attorney David Boyd understands LaMar's frustration. But this phase of the process especially, he said, "is designed almost exclusively to honor the constitutional rights of the defendant, and that's very difficult for anyone who has had a family member taken away."
For LaMar, time hasn't helped her grief. She couldn't bear to stay in the same home, not here, but packing up without Sierra was agonizing.
LaMar had wanted to keep Sierra's room just as it was so if, by chance, she was still alive and could run from her abductors, she would know how to get home. "Even though I had her things, I didn't have her," she said. "I felt lost."
Now, LaMar keeps Sierra's cheerleading bag in her car, just where Sierra left it. Once in a while she pulls out a sock and breathes in her daughter's scent. Last month, she found a Disney key chain between the car seats, a gift from Sierra that said, "I (heart) mom."
Sometimes, LaMar dreams that Sierra is home, that they walk together through the old school cafeteria that has been transformed into the search center.
In the dream, Sierra is too traumatized to speak. But she's listening as her mother points out the hand-drawn posters and letters taped to the walls, and to the box of bracelets and pendants that people have made for Sierra, for the day she might return.
"We're so anxious to show the love that's all over the walls, you can just feel it," LaMar said of her dream. "It seems so real."
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Marlene LaMar, mother of missing teen Sierra LaMar, stands at Palm and Dougherty avenues, the last place her daughter was seen
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Post by raine1953 Sat Apr 06, 2013 4:09 am

Almost one year after he was arrested in connection with the murder and kidnap of a Morgan Hill teen, Antolin Garcia Torres has delayed entering a plea. Again.

Garcia Torres' attorney, Santa Clara County Deputy Alternate Public Defender Traci Owens, said in court on Thursday that her client won't enter a plea until she gets all the discovery, and that discovery has been delayed, in part, because of technical, computer glitches at the District Attorney's Office. The hearing was delayed again until April 18.
Garcia Torres is charged with abducting Sierra Lamar, 15, from Morgan Hill last March and killing her. Her body has never been found, but police and prosecutors presume she is dead.

Garcia Torres has additionally been charged with three separate attempted kidnappings of other women, all in March 2009.

Volunteers who attended the court hearing on Thursday said they were frustrated with the delay.
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Post by NiteSpinR Sat Apr 06, 2013 4:43 am

Our disgraceful Legal System is so freaken slow.
And still there are no answers about where she's at.
I'd be willing to bet his family knows something about what happened to Sierra.
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Post by Wrapitup Mon Mar 24, 2014 1:42 pm

Sierra LaMar's Father: "Not Knowing What Happened" Is Most Frustrating After 2 Years
By Riya Bhattacharjee and Marianne Favro | Monday, Mar 17, 2014 | Updated 6:36 AM PDT

Two years after Morgan Hill teenager Sierra LaMar was last seen near the bus stop near her home, the search to find her continues.

Friends, family and even strangers have volunteered – and continue to volunteer – their time to bring Sierra home, hopeful that she is still alive. But it hasn’t been easy, especially for the LaMars.

Sierra’s father Steve LaMar, spoke with NBC Bay Area about his daughter and how the family is holding up two years after the disappearance.

Friends to Dedicate Memorial Bench Honoring Missing Teen Sierra LaMar
“I am doing OK, it’s tough, especially at this time. It’s been very frustrating two years – we haven’t really found anything with the searches but we are still doing that,” Steve LaMar said.

LaMar described the length of the court process as “frustrating.”

“We were warned of that but it’s still frustrating,” he said, adding that the district attorney’s office had warned the family that high-profile murder cases could drag on for years.

Twenty-two-year-old former supermarket employee Antolin Garcia-Torres was charged with Sierra’s kidnapping and murder and is currently in Santa Clara Jail. Garcia-Torres pleaded not guilty in February.

But the toughest part for the LaMars has probably been missing Sierra, and still not having any answers, LaMar said.

“Knowing that someone does know [what happened to Sierra] kind of makes it more frustrating,” he said.

Birthdays and family celebrations have been especially tough, LaMar said. Even though it has been two years since the disappearance, things have not gotten easier.

LaMar described his daughter as a fun loving, well-loved teenager with a big heart.

“She’s kinda goofy around her friends,” he said. "We’d joke around with her – she’d make fun of my quirks and music and I’d make fun of her quirks and music.”

LaMar said he and Sierra would often go watch animated movies like “Toy Story” together at the theater. “Because that’s what we both liked,” he said.

When the family receives news that investigators have received new tips on the case – recently divers reportedly searched a South Bay lake for evidence in the case – LaMar described the feeling as both “nervous and positive.”

“It’s still priority for the sheriff’s department and they are still doing that, so that’s positive,” he said. “But, yeah, any time something like that happens it makes me a little nervous. We don’t want them to find anything, really.”

If you have any information about Sierra LaMar please call 408-808-4500 after hours 408-299-2311 or the anonymous tip line at 408-808-4431. Text messages can be sent to 408-421-6760. Email tips to: ti

LaMar said part of him really wants to believe that Sierra was kidnapped and is still alive.

“I am sticking with that until something happens.”

When asked whether he has any doubt that Garcia-Torres was involved, LaMar said, “he definitely knows something.”

“I think I’ll leave it at that and let the courts proceed,” he said. “I have faith and confidence in it even though it’s frustrating. I still have faith and confidence that we’ll have some answers and some justice in all this.”

LaMar said that the family has never gone to court to see Garcia-Torres during his preliminary appearances. “It’s a personal decision – I’ve talked about it with my family and pretty much all of us are not inclined to go until it’s necessary or basically until when the trial begins.”

When asked whether he had a message for Garcia-Torres, LaMar said “No.”

His message to the public: “Just keep hoping and help us to search for her.”

A dedicated group of about 25 volunteers still meets on Saturdays to search for Sierra in the Morgan Hill area.

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Post by Wrapitup Mon Mar 24, 2014 1:43 pm

This case is similar to Holly Bobo's...no body..person has been indicted for murder.
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Post by NiteSpinR Mon May 19, 2014 8:35 pm

05/19/2014

SAN JOSE -- Two years after 15-year-old Sierra LaMar disappeared on her way to her school bus stop, District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced Monday he is seeking the death penalty against the man charged with kidnapping and killing her.

Despite ongoing volunteer searches through the creeks and fields of Morgan Hill, her body has never been found -- a fact that experts say could make a death penalty verdict difficult to obtain. At the same time, some are hoping that the specter of execution could persuade the 22-year-old suspect -- handyman and one-time grocery store clerk Antolin Garcia-Torres -- to finally lead investigators to her body.

This will be the first death-penalty case since Rosen took office in 2011.

"Given the facts of this case and after a comprehensive review by a committee of senior prosecutors, I have concluded that this defendant should face the ultimate penalty," Rosen said in a brief statement Monday.

Garcia-Torres' alleged history of attacking other women contributed to Rosen's decision, he said. After Garcia-Torres was charged in Sierra's disappearance, he was charged with attempting to kidnap and carjack three other women in separate instances four years earlier, when he worked at the Morgan Hill Safeway and allegedly preyed on the women in the parking lot.

After being indicted by a grand jury in February, Garcia-Torres pleaded not guilty to all the charges, including kidnapping and murdering Sierra. The Alternate Defender's Office, which is representing him, expressed disappointment in Rosen's decision, saying it is a missing person case, not a homicide. The case "does not appear to meet any objective criteria for seeking death nor do they appear to match in any manner the facts and circumstances of other cases in this county where the district attorney has sought death," the office said in a statement.

The LaMar family, however, supports Rosen's decision, Sierra's father, Steve LaMar, and cousin, Keith LaMar, said Monday.

"We're glad the DA has chosen to do the right thing," Keith LaMar said. "I don't personally feel society would be safe with someone like that back in it. "

Several members of the LaMar family either met with one of Rosen's deputies or joined a conference call about two or three weeks ago to discuss the death penalty possibility. All but one cousin, who was torn, supported the decision, he said.

Keith LaMar also said Rosen made it clear that pursuing the death penalty is not intended to be a bargaining chip to persuade Garcia-Torres to lead authorities to her body.

"Someone in the family asked, would the DA use that -- is that one of the factors?" Keith LaMar said. "Rosen responded, 'Absolutely not.'"

But Marc Klaas, founder of the KlaasKids Foundation, who has helped extensively with the ongoing search effort for Sierra, said Rosen's decision could put needed pressure on Garcia-Torres.

"It's obviously going to be a long, hard slog trying to get a jury to recommend execution when you don't have a body,'' said Klaas, whose own daughter, Polly, was kidnapped and killed in Petaluma in 1993. "But perhaps this individual understands now how serious the DA is and would be willing to make a deal to bring Sierra home."

Obtaining the death penalty without a victim's body is rare but not without precedent in Santa Clara County: Mark Christopher Crew is on death row for killing wife Nancy Jo Crew in 1982, where Crew and an accomplice chopped off his wife's head and stuffed her body into a 55-gallon drum filled with cement, but the remains were never found.

Sierra vanished March 16, 2012, as she was walking to the bus stop near her home in an unincorporated and rural farming area just north of Morgan Hill. Garcia-Torres' DNA was found on articles of Sierra's clothing found two days after she disappeared, folded in her Juicy-brand bag and tossed into a field near her home. Sierra's DNA was also found in the suspect's red Volkswagen Jetta.

Rosen's decision to pursue the death penalty against Garcia-Torres comes after declining to do so in six previous eligible cases.

But the lack of a body will present significant challenges, said Steven Clark, a criminal-defense attorney and former Santa Clara County prosecutor.

"There's a certain level of depravity that goes with a successful death-penalty case, where you can detail what the victim went through," Clark said. "The jurors are appalled by and decide that person should no longer be in society."

Even now, between 20 and 30 volunteer searchers continue to scour creeks, woods and fields throughout the South County every Saturday, looking for Sierra.

"As a family member who's lost someone, it's hard to describe," Steve LaMar said. "Holding out that hope is just something that you do."

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Post by Wrapitup Tue May 20, 2014 12:49 pm

Thank you, Nite, for updating this.

I have to agree that lack of a body w/be difficult to get a DP conviction. His alleged history of attacking other women may not be allowed as evidence at trial. It Should be but it's all up to the judge.

This family has been through hell. I understand them wanting the DP but in all reality, he is young..spending the rest of his life in prison is, to me, a tougher sentence.

Look at Scott Peterson..he's been on death row in California for at least 10 years now. He's still breathing..

What's the point of finding someone guilty and sentencing them to death if the system takes decades to follow through? MOO.
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Post by Wrapitup Mon Jul 14, 2014 8:54 pm

By Eric Kurhi and Tracy Seipel
Staff writers
POSTED: 07/12/2014 06:31:16 PM PDT

MORGAN HILL -- Just after she arrived at the search center early Saturday, Marlene LaMar was sobbing, tears streaming down her face. She had just found out about the rope -- a ligature with her daughter Sierra's hair on it, discovered in the trunk of her accused killer's car.

"I didn't know about the rope. I had not been told," she said in anguish to supporters who surrounded and tried to comfort her before setting out on their weekly search for Sierra's remains.

While the news crushed the mother, legal analysts said the detail is a prime piece of evidence in the case against Antolin Garcia-Torres, who faces the death penalty for the kidnap and killing of Sierra LaMar, the 15-year-old Morgan Hill girl who disappeared after heading out to school on March 16, 2012.

That revelation and others surfaced in grand jury testimony -- released late Friday after this newspaper fought to make the transcript public. The evidence outlined in the 1,900-page document ultimately led to the indictment of Garcia-Torres, 23.

Steven Clark, a criminal defense attorney and former Santa Clara County prosecutor, said the rope is one of the most compelling pieces of evidence wielded by the District Attorney's Office.

"It's very problematic for the defense, especially with it also being in the trunk," he said. "The rope conjures up certain imagery of her being tied up (and) perhaps being used as a weapon."

Attorneys for Garcia-Torres did not return phone calls on Saturday.

The grand jury testimony also revealed that the prosecution's case is heavy with DNA evidence of the "trace" or "touch" variety -- bits of genetic material of unknown specific biological origin such as blood or saliva.

Bicka Barlow, a San Francisco lawyer who specializes in DNA evidence, said that kind of DNA is often used to place someone at a scene. Modern technology can detect much smaller amounts of DNA than in the past, she said.

But Barlow said it can be problematic and pointed to a recently exonerated suspect in the high-profile homicide of a Monte Sereno millionaire after it was discovered his DNA was transferred to the victim via a medical sensor that paramedics used on both the victim and the accused, who was never at the scene.

In the Garcia-Torres case, traces of his DNA were found on Sierra's discarded jeans, which led investigators to him in the first place. And a subsequent, exhaustive search of his car bolstered that connection when samples taken from an armrest, gloves and the rope revealed DNA profiles that included one matching Sierra.

"There are a lot of things in the world that people touch where they could leave DNA without realizing it," Barlow said.

However, given the details of the Garcia-Torres case, Barlow said it's difficult to see a casual connection in this situation.

Some kind of explanation for the DNA is exactly what the defense will need to come up with, said Michael Cardoza, a Walnut Creek-based criminal defense attorney with experience in DNA cases.

"Why is it there?" he asked. "What is the innocent explanation for that? With circumstantial evidence, if there are two reasonable conclusions pointing equally at guilt and innocence, you have to go with innocent. But you do need a reasonable explanation."

Testimony showed that deputy district attorney David Boyd made a case to jurors that Garcia-Torres had a chance to do just that when he was first contacted by investigators on April 4, 2012, after they found the match.

But the suspect told them that he'd never met nor seen Sierra until she became a regular face on television newscasts following her disappearance.

"They didn't go to school together," Boyd said. "They didn't go to the same gym together. They didn't have friends in common. They didn't run in the same areas."

For Garcia-Torres, Cardoza said, that was "sinking his own ship."

"As defense attorneys, we tell you: Don't talk about anything; you never know what you are going to give up to police," Cardoza said. "And that's a classic example."

DNA also comes into play in possibly the most bizarre revelation in the transcript and another incriminating statement to police. Garcia-Torres offered his own explanation to his genetic material being found on Sierra's jeans. He told them that he was a compulsive masturbator and had thrown a tissue containing his semen out of his car while driving near the spot where the girl's clothing was found.

But police had never mentioned anything about semen when they talked to Garcia-Torres about DNA, something he professed to know little about.

"They said things like fingerprint and they said things like blood," Boyd said. "It was Mr. Garcia-Torres who interjected the idea, frankly, of a sexual motive."

Boyd said that indicated what he had done to the girl.

"When you answer questions you were not asked, that is a telltale marker of a guilty conscience," said Clark, the former prosecutor.

The prosecution also spent considerable time during the two-month grand jury proceedings in the murder case on a previous Morgan Hill crime spree that Garcia-Torres is charged with. The district attorney's office believes the crimes, allegedly committed in 2009, show the suspect had a relentless drive that eventually led to Sierra's kidnapping and murder.

In those cases, nothing was taken from the female victims, and no words were spoken to indicate a robbery. Garcia-Torres allegedly tried to chase one woman down outside a Morgan Hill Safeway, then struck again with a new tactic a half-hour later at another Safeway across town -- the same supermarket where he worked.

That was a risky move, Boyd said. "But he had to do what he had to do," he added. "He had to find another target."

A stun gun used on the second victim was dropped in her car when the attacker fled, and detectives who re-examined the old cases after Garcia-Torres was arrested in the Sierra case matched his fingerprint with a battery in the device.

Boyd said the cases show a predilection for snatching women.

"Had something unusual not intervened, the defendant was going to take them to another location with their own car," he said.

Another possible defense that prosecutors discounted before the grand jury involves Sierra being missing but not dead.

Boyd said there's no evidence that Sierra would "abandon everything she knew," and family members with the search party faithful on Saturday agreed with Boyd's assessment.

"I don't think that's a possibility," Steve LaMar said of his daughter while helping out Saturday at the search center. "I know Sierra, and even if that had been the case, she would have been in contact with us by now."

Asked if he believes she is dead, tears welled up in his eyes, and he said: "I don't want to believe that, and I will hold out hope until the end."

Sierra's grandmother, Roberta LaMar, 90, said she'd heard bits and pieces about the grand jury report from her daughter Connie but not much in the way of details.

"I think she did it to protect me, but I want to know," she said. "There are things we just have to face up to. Some things are final, and there are some bad things that happen all the time."

Still, she added, "It's so hard to remember that I'll never hug her again."

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video..above link.
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Post by Wrapitup Mon Jul 14, 2014 8:57 pm

Earlier...

Grand jury testimony details DNA evidence, self-incriminating tale with Sierra LaMar kidnap-murder suspect
By Robert Salonga and Eric Kurhi Mercury News
POSTED: 07/11/2014 04:15:14 PM PDTDAYS AGO

SAN JOSE -- The man charged in the presumed killing and disappearance of 15-year-old Sierra LaMar was indicted on the strength of recovered DNA and alleged self-incriminating statements that revealed knowledge about evidence before detectives knew it themselves.

That was the thrust of the case that compelled at least 12 of 18 members of a criminal grand jury to indict Antolin Garcia-Torres in the murder of Sierra, whose body still has not been found, and in three prior attacks on women that surfaced after his 2012 arrest in the teen's case.

The new details about the evidence against Garcia-Torres are contained in 1,900 pages of secret grand jury testimony released late Friday. This newspaper bore the cost and successfully fought to make the transcript public as Garcia-Torres' attorneys sought to keep it under wraps. Before the release of the transcript, little was publicly known about Garcia-Torres' arrest other than that it was based on DNA evidence.

"It's vital for the public to understand what occurred during the secret grand jury proceeding, particularly since the prosecution is seeking the death penalty in this case," said David J. Butler, editor and senior vice president for news at the Bay Area News Group.

Garcia-Torres' defense team could not be immediately reached late Friday.

Sierra disappeared March 16, 2012 while walking to a school bus stop near her home in an unincorporated area near Morgan Hill. While Sierra's body has not been found despite exhaustive searches by officials, family and volunteers, prosecutors believe they have a strong enough case to seek the death penalty -- the first such case in the county since District Attorney Jeff Rosen was elected in 2011.

Sierra's DNA was found inside the suspect's car, while his was on her clothing, discarded in a field not far from where she was headed on the foggy morning when she disappeared.

More specifically, testimony from 50 witnesses painted a picture that included the discovery of DNA consistent with Garcia-Torres on LaMar's pants, which first led Santa Clara County Sheriff's detectives to suspect him. A hair from Sierra was found on a rope inside his car trunk, and black polyester fibers from the floor were similar to fibers found on her clothing.

During one of multiple interviews with sex-crimes detectives, Garcia-Torres preemptively tried to explain away the evidence against him. That peculiarity, they testified, continued to the point where Garcia-Torres was giving them new insight into the crime.

When the detectives mentioned they had DNA evidence, Garcia-Torres purportedly told them that on the way to a fishing trip at the Uvas or Chesbro reservoirs, he masturbated and ejaculated into a tissue and threw it out the window, which he claimed was a regular practice. But the detectives had not yet specified that the trace DNA they found was from semen.

"When you answer questions you were not asked, that is a telltale marker of a guilty conscience," said Steven Clark, a criminal-defense attorney, legal analyst and former Santa Clara County prosecutor.

Deputy District Attorney David Boyd also pointed out detectives' testimony that Garcia-Torres, again unsolicited, laid out an unusual route toward the reservoirs that took him to Palm Avenue near where Sierra disappeared, even though it's in the opposite direction, and claimed to have had no interaction with the teen.

It was a clinching moment for investigators: Garcia-Torres contending that he never crossed paths with Sierra but still going out of his way to explain how their DNA ended up on each other's person or property.

"The defense now will have to do two things: create doubt based on other possible scenarios of DNA transfer and also fix that big lie which is, 'I never met Sierra LaMar,'" Clark said. "There's a lot of lawyering left to do, but the defense has its work cut out for it."

Other elements of the case that had not been made public until Friday was the finding that Garcia-Torres had purchased bleach and a turkey baster three days before Sierra vanished.

"He purchased two items. One of which can destroy DNA, and the other can be used as an applicator," Boyd said to the grand jury, according to the transcript.

That prompted testimony from Garcia-Torres' wife refuting that implication by claiming he would not have purchased those items without her consent. Also according to the grand jury transcript, she provided an alibi for Garcia-Torres that ultimately did not withstand scrutiny.

Authorities also testified that the condition of Sierra's recovered clothing suggested foul play.

"That sweatshirt, when it's recovered has dirt stains on it, and where are those dirt stains? They are on the inside of that sweatshirt, when you lift it up. And there's also dirt stains on the back of her jeans," Boyd said during the proceedings. "Now how does that happen? And I want you to envision this in your mind. Sierra's rear-end and back are on the ground and someone's got her feet by their hands and they are dragging her."

He also said that based on video evidence from a trailer park and a bank, Garcia-Torres had about six hours to commit the crime.

"That's a lot of time to hide a body in whatever way needs to be hidden," Boyd said.

The sheer volume of detail is vital to the prosecution's case, Clark said, given that Sierra still has not been found.

"What the DA's saying is we don't have the body of Sierra LaMar, but we have the footprint and the trail," Clark said. "They have a lot of forensic evidence that pieces together to show a very sinister demise."

Before his arrest, detectives tracked Garcia-Torres' moves with a GPS device placed on his Volkswagen Jetta and scoured the Morgan Hill trailer he shared with his mother, pregnant wife and toddler daughter. He was questioned several times and surveilled around the clock for nearly two months by detectives who had pegged him as a suspect since shortly after Sierra's disappearance.

They made the arrest on May 21, 2012, when they no longer believed there was a possibility that Garcia-Torres would lead them to Sierra.

The grand jury heard testimony related not only to Sierra's case, but also a series of violent attacks on three South Bay women in 2009. He is charged with trying to kidnap them in separate carjackings that were linked to him after his fingerprint was found in a stun gun dropped during one of the encounters.

The Feb. 11 indictment meant that Garcia-Torres is going directly to trial, instead of a preliminary hearing in which a judge determines whether there is enough evidence to warrant bringing the case before a jury. In numerous court dates, his attorneys put off entering a plea.

Days after the indictment, he pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Garcia-Torres' attorney Brian Matthews did not want the grand jury transcript released because he believed news reports about it would hamper his client's chances of getting a fair trial.

However, a judge sided with a request by this newspaper to unseal the 1,900-page transcript on Friday, unless the defendant's lawyers convinced an appellate court to review the ruling. The paper had argued that the public's right to view court documents bore more weight than the defendant's fear of pre-trial publicity.

While such concerns could prompt the defense to seek a change of venue for the trial, the paper's attorneys said the transcript's release was not likely to significantly pollute the jury pool in a county of 1.8 million people.

But it will further engage the active minds of those who have been following the case closely, Clark said.

"It's almost become a murder mystery that's captivated Santa Clara County and we're all participants in it. It's not hard to see why they returned an indictment."

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Post by Wrapitup Mon Jul 14, 2014 9:00 pm

Marc Klaas
3 hrs ·
Heartless bastards! What is wrong with the prosecutors in the Sierra LaMar case? They were so uncaring about Sierra's family that they didn't forewarn them about the evidence that was being released via the grand jury transcript. As a result, the family found out about Sierra's hair on the rope on the evening news. Let me repeat: Heartless bastards!

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Post by NiteSpinR Tue Jul 15, 2014 12:55 am

Why is the family always the last to know details about their loved ones?
The media ends up being the source of information, that should come from LE instead!
Truly disrespectful.
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Missing 15 Year Old Sierra Lamar ~ Her Cell Phone & A Bag With Her Clothes Found~ Suspect Antolin Garcia-Torres Arrested & Charged With Kidnapping & Murder~ Her Remains Have Not Been Found - Page 5 Empty Every Saturday A Team Of Searchers Continue Looking For The Remains Of Sierra LaMar, Who Went Missing March 16, 2012

Post by NiteSpinR Mon Feb 09, 2015 6:54 pm

01/16/2015

SAN JOSE -- Every Saturday, a couple dozen volunteer searchers continue to scour southern Santa Clara County, looking for Sierra LaMar, the Morgan Hill teenager who went missing on March 16, 2012.

This weekend, they will have a special searcher joining them: Chet Couture.

His son, Sharks standout Logan Couture, has taken a personal interest in Sierra's heart-tugging story. Last September, he organized an autograph-signing event with teammates that raised money for the search effort.

On Jan. 10, about 30 search volunteers attended the Sharks-New York Rangers game at SAP Center and met with Couture afterward. Chet Couture, who is in town for the annual fathers event staged by the team, also was there.

"I just wanted to tell him how impressed we all were with Logan's character and how much he has meant to the LaMar family and the searchers," said Roger Nelson, the volunteer search coordinator.

Chet Couture, who lives in London, Ontario, said that he wanted to help, too.

"He asked, 'Can I come out and search?' " Nelson recalled.

The volunteers have never given up hope that they will find Sierra. A 15-year-old cheerleader who attended Sobrato High School, Sierra vanished in an unincorporated area near Morgan Hill.

Antolin Garcia Torres, 23, a former supermarket employee, is charged with her kidnapping and murder and faces the death penalty if convicted. Torres, who has pleaded not guilty, continues to be held without bail at the Santa Clara County Jail.

Search volunteers meet every Saturday at 8 a.m. at the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center at 17000 Monterey St. in Morgan Hill.

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