Accused murderer appears in Colusa court

Man has preliminary hearing for 2018 murder of Williams woman

The man accused of murdering Williams native Karen Garcia in January 2018 appeared in Colusa County

Superior Court on Thursday for a preliminary hearing.

Salvador Garcia-vaca appeared before Judge Jeffery A. Thompson for the murder charge, as well as a pretrial conference for a battery charge stemming from a domestic violence incident with the victim in December 2017.

Garcia-vaca pleaded not guilty to both charges in September 2019.

Karen Garcia’s body was discovered in a car parked in a Woodland shopping center parking lot in Jan. 2018, one week after she went missing. An autopsy later determined she died from blunt force trauma.

Garcia-vaca, the victim’s ex-boyfriend and father of her child, was questioned by police during the week Garcia was missing. Soon after questioning, authorities believe Garcia-vaca fled to Mexico, when a stolen Toyota van that he was believed

to be driving was located near the U.s.-mexico border in October 2018.

Around this time, police obtained a search warrant to search the home GarciaVaca shared with the victim, and found a substantial amount of blood soaked into the carpet in the bedroom, as well as blood spatter in multiple locations in the home.

Garcia-vaca was arrested in August 2019 by the United States Marshals in Guadalajara, Julisco, Mexico and extradited back to the Colusa County Jail, where he remains in custody.

During the hearing, the prosecution presented several witnesses which testified about the gruesome details in the days before and after Garcia went missing. The witnesses were also cross-examined by the defense.

Judge Thompson ruled that the evidence presented indicates sufficient probable cause to believe the defendant committed the alleged crime.

Garcia-vaca is scheduled to appear in Colusa County Superior Court Feb. 19 for an arraignment.