A Nevada craftsman was found guilty Tuesday of killing an 81-year-old man who was strangled in the bedroom of a Newport Beach house six years ago.
An Orange County Superior Court jury found Anthony Thomas Garcia, 62, guilty of first degree murder for the April 11, 2015 murder of Abelardo Lopez Estacion.
However, the jury found that the killing was not carried out for financial reasons. Such a finding would have made it a murder in special circumstances that would have resulted in a likely life sentence with no parole.
The conviction comes less than a year after another jury failed to pass a verdict, resulting in one miscarriage and a second trial. The second trial was postponed several times during testimony after Garcia was placed in temporary quarantine for exposure to other prison inmates who tested positive for COVID-19.
The murder occurred amid an ugly battle for the estate of Dortha Lamb, Estacion’s dying wife. Garcia was Lamb’s granddaughter’s ex-boyfriend, and two of Garcia’s daughters were Lamb’s great-grandchildren.
At the beginning of Garcia’s latest trial, Assistant District Attorney Seton Hunt told the jury that the case was about “family, greed, hatred and deception.”
Lamb – a self-made woman who owned valuable properties in Newport Beach, San Clemente, and Costa Mesa – had been with Estacion for over 20 years but only married him shortly before his death. At the time of Estacion’s murder, Lamb died of terminal cancer and suffered from dementia.
According to testimony during the trials, Garcia and some of Lamb’s relatives believed Estacion was abusing Lamb and taking advantage of her health problems to siphon money from her accounts. According to witness statements, Garcia had told others that he wanted to kill Estacion.
A lawsuit broke out when Lamb’s family took her from their Newport Beach home and tried to kick Estacion out of the residence and prevent her from contacting Lamb. A judge delayed a decision approving an injunction against Estacion.
Hours later, someone walked into the Newport Beach home, cut power to the residence, and suffocated, beat, and strangled Estacion.
Prosecutors allege Garcia drove from Carson City to Newport Beach to kill Estacion and then immediately drove back. It is said that he left his cell phone with his adult daughter, Samantha Garcia, so it would look like he was still in Nevada.
Samantha Garcia initially told investigators that she owned her father’s cell phone and had a fake text message between the two of them the night Estacion was murdered. But during both trials, the daughter retracted these claims, claiming detectives pressured her to lie, claiming she did not have her father’s cell phone that night.
During the trials, Garcia’s attorney, Alisha Montoro, described Garcia as a non-violent, devoted family man who led a simple life. The defense attorney denied that Garcia believed his daughters were entitled to Lamb’s money, telling jurors that Garcia wasn’t even in California on the night of the murder.
Garcia is due to return for trial on April 28. He faces up to 25 years in prison.
