Defense wants to move slaying trial
An attorney for the man accused of abducting and murdering a missing South Bay teenager said Monday that he will seek to have the trial moved out of Santa Clara County.
Antolin Garcia-Torres’ defense team fears it won’t be able to find an impartial jury in the county, given the extensive publicity surrounding the disappearance of 15-year-old Sierra LaMar of Morgan Hill.
Sierra was last seen before leaving her home for Sobrato High School on March 16, 2012. When sheriff ’s deputies put a trained dog on Sierra’s scent soon after she van- ished, the trail went cold just 150 yards from her house on Paquita Espana Court, investigative documents show. Months of searches failed to turn up any sign of a body.
Prosecutors allege that Garcia-Torres kidnapped Sierra while she was waiting for a bus near her home. Authorities have said that the girl’s DNA was found in Garcia-Torres’ car and that his DNA was found on clothes belonging to Sierra found near a shed on a farm less than 2 miles from her home.
Garcia-Torres has pleaded not guilty to specialcircumstance murder
while in the course of kidnapping and three separate counts of attempting to kidnap women in 2009. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against him.
One of Garcia-Torres’ attorneys, Alfonso Lopez, said outside court in San Jose on Monday that the defense would file a change-of-venue motion in the next two months. He declined to comment further.
In a brief filed in September seeking to dismiss the murder indictment, however, co-counsel Brian Matthews said the grand jury had been operating in an emotional environment.
“Sierra’s disappearance has been a highly publicized event,” Matthews wrote. “Until recently, searchers combed the South County area looking for her with many wearing shirts claiming her as ‘everyone’s daughter.’ It is the type of crime that causes people to feel insecure in their homes and gives them pause about whether to allow their children to walk or take the bus to school. And when charges of capital murder are added to the mix, the case gives rise to very strong emotions.”
Prosecutors are likely to oppose any attempt to move the trial. A change of venue can be costly for both sides, given the travel and housing costs for attorneys and witnesses.
Change-of-venue motions are not common, and judges granting them even less so. Notable California trials that saw successful venue changes in recent years included those against Scott Peterson, convicted of murdering his wife and their unborn child, and former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle, convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant.
The decision in Garcia-Torres’ case will be up to the trial judge, Vanessa Zecher.
Steve Clark, a legal analyst and former Santa Clara County deputy district attorney, called the motion an “uphill battle for the defense.”
“Everything goes on the road,” Clark said about venue changes. “It’s expensive and a procedural nightmare.”
Clark said prosecutors can point to Santa Clara County’s large and diverse population in arguing that it will be possible to seat an impartial jury.