Sierra LaMar murder trial won’t move
Judge denies defense attorneys’ claim that press coverage tainted jury pool
SAN JOSE — The man accused of killing Morgan Hill teen Sierra LaMar will be tried in Santa Clara County, a judge ruled Thursday, denying a hard-fought motion by defense attorneys to move the trial to a different county.
Citing extremely negative pretrial publicity, lawyers for defendant Antolin Garcia-Torres, 22, had asked Superior Court Judge Vanessa A. Zecher to move the capital murder trial.
To support their argument, lawyers Brian Matthews and
Al Lopez put an expert on the stand, retired Chico State political-science professor Ed Bronson. He testified for more than two days that the press “demonized” Garcia-Torres and also said the case, including the search for her body by volunteers, was too well-known for him to get a fair trial.
But in a short written ruling, the judge said she did not find a reasonable likelihood that Garcia-Torres would be unable to receive a fair trial here. However, she denied the motion “without prejudice,” meaning his attorneys can renew it later.
LaMar, 15, vanished on her way to the school bus stop near Morgan Hill on the morning of March 16, 2012. Her body has not been found.
Zecher has not ruled yet on another defense motion to exclude incriminating evidence. Garcia-Torres’ lawyers based that motion in part on the grounds that the search warrant was improperly obtained.
The last time a change of venue was granted in Santa Clara County was in 1980, when the so-called San Jose Cheese Co. murder trial involving the local Mafia was moved to Los Angeles County.
In court documents, prosecutors David Boyd and Dana Veazey argued against moving Garcia-Tor- res’ trial, citing Santa Clara County’s “immense population” and jury pool. The trial of the notorious Boston Marathon bomber, whose case received far more attention, was not moved out of Suffolk County, which has a population of about 778,000. Santa Clara County is home to 1.78 million people, more than twice as many as Boston.