Sierra LaMar jury reaches verdict

The South Bay jury in the high-profile murder case of Morgan Hill teenager Sierra LaMar has reached a verdict, Santa Clara County Superior Court officials said on Monday.

The jury will read the much-anticipated decision at 9 a.m. Tuesday, deciding the fate of 26year-old Antolin GarciaTorres, who, if convicted, faces the death penalty in the 2012 disappearance of the 15-year-old Ann Sobrato High School student.

The jury will also announce its verdict in three additional counts against Garcia-Torres of attempted kidnapping during the commission of a carjacking from three separate incidents at Morgan Hill Safeway stores in 2009.

The jury informed the judge it reached its decision at the end of its first complete day of deliberations. The panel began discussing the case Thursday, following closing arguments, and worked a half day on Friday before resuming deliberations Monday morning.

Sierra vanished on March 16, 2012, while walking to catch a school bus. Authorities found her cell phone and clothing abandoned in fields near her home in the days after she disappeared.

DNA on Sierra’s jeans led them to Garcia-Torres as a suspect, but no body, crime scene or other direct evidence was ever found.

Prosecutors built their case on physical evidence, including the DNA and Sierra’s hair found on a rope in the trunk of Garcia-Torres’ car. Prosecutors also introduced circumstantial evidence, including security video of Garcia-Torres’ movements and details he told investigators during interviews.

The defendant’s attorney, though, argued that prosecutors could not prove Sierra is dead, much less that GarciaTorres is her killer.

Defense attorney Alfonso Lopez sought to chip away at the evidence — at times blaming shoddy work by crime lab technicians — throughout the more than threemonth trial that included emotional testimony from Sierra’s family and friends.