\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Santa Clara County Sheriff\u2019s Office is speaking out after the conviction in the 2012 killing of Morgan Hill teenager Sierra LaMar was overturned Friday.The department said in a social media post that it stands by its investigation. Officials added that they will not rest until LaMar, whose body was never found, is located and her family gets closure.Antolin Garcia-Torres, 34, was convicted in 2017 of first-degree murder during the commission of a kidnapping in the death of 15-year-old LaMar, as well as three unrelated attempted kidnappings during a carjacking, the Santa Clara County District Attorney\u2019s Office said. LaMar missed her bus to Ann Sobrato High School in Morgan Hill on March 16, 2012. Garcia-Torres was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.The 6th District Court of Appeal overturned the judgment against Garcia-Torres, finding insufficient evidence of willful, deliberate and premeditated murder or a specific intent to kill. The court said Garcia-Torres can be retried, but not under those theories.The court also found it was prejudicial error to try the murder case alongside three attempted-kidnapping counts from an unrelated Safeway parking lot incident three years earlier, requiring reversal of all convictions.\u201cWhile the Sheriff\u2019s Office is disappointed in the court\u2019s decision, we respect the judicial review process and the role appellate courts play in ensuring fairness and due process. This ruling does not diminish the gravity of this case or the dedication that went into the original investigation,\u201d the sheriff\u2019s office said in the post.The sheriff\u2019s office said it has continued to pursue new information and remains unwavering in the investigation. The department added that it is confident the district attorney\u2019s office is evaluating next steps.Garcia-Torres remained incarcerated at Corcoran State Prison as of Monday.See more coverage of top Central Coast stories | Download our app \/ Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tSANTA CLARA, Calif. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The Santa Clara County Sheriff\u2019s Office is speaking out after the conviction in the 2012 killing of Morgan Hill teenager Sierra LaMar was overturned Friday.<\/p>\n
The department said in a social media post that it stands by its investigation. Officials added that they will not rest until LaMar, whose body was never found, is located and her family gets closure.<\/p>\n
Antolin Garcia-Torres, 34, was convicted in 2017 of first-degree murder during the commission of a kidnapping in the death of 15-year-old LaMar, as well as three unrelated attempted kidnappings during a carjacking, the Santa Clara County District Attorney\u2019s Office said. LaMar missed her bus to Ann Sobrato High School in Morgan Hill on March 16, 2012. Garcia-Torres was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.<\/p>\n
The 6th District Court of Appeal overturned the judgment against Garcia-Torres, finding insufficient evidence of willful, deliberate and premeditated murder or a specific intent to kill. The court said Garcia-Torres can be retried, but not under those theories.<\/p>\n
The court also found it was prejudicial error to try the murder case alongside three attempted-kidnapping counts from an unrelated Safeway parking lot incident three years earlier, requiring reversal of all convictions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the Sheriff\u2019s Office is disappointed in the court\u2019s decision, we respect the judicial review process and the role appellate courts play in ensuring fairness and due process. This ruling does not diminish the gravity of this case or the dedication that went into the original investigation,\u201d the sheriff\u2019s office said in the post.<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office said it has continued to pursue new information and remains unwavering in the investigation. The department added that it is confident the district attorney\u2019s office is evaluating next steps.<\/p>\n
Garcia-Torres remained incarcerated at Corcoran State Prison as of Monday.<\/p>\n
See more coverage of top Central Coast stories<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> \/ Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Santa Clara County Sheriff\u2019s Office is speaking out after the conviction in the 2012 killing of Morgan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[94058,94055,2820,48025,3622,6246,348,25755,94056,22652,346,88,90,89,14369,2637,94057,41977],"class_list":{"0":"post-202689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-ann-sobrato-high-school","9":"tag-antolin-garcia-torre","10":"tag-app","11":"tag-conviction","12":"tag-court","13":"tag-department","14":"tag-investigation","15":"tag-kidnapping","16":"tag-lamar","17":"tag-murder-case","18":"tag-office","19":"tag-san-jose","20":"tag-san-jose-headlines","21":"tag-san-jose-news","22":"tag-santa-clara-county-sheriff","23":"tag-sheriff","24":"tag-sierra-lamar-investigation","25":"tag-top-central-coast-story"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}