Palm Springs quadruple murder victims in focus in prosecutor’s closing arguments
The prosecution closed its case Wednesday in the Palm Springs quadruple murder retrial for Jose Larin Garcia with a focus on the victims.
Larin Garcia is accused of murdering four people in Palm Springs in 2019. His first trial ended with a deadlocked jury.
In her pointed closing argument, prosecutor and Deputy District Attorney Samantha Paixao made her case that the defendant must be held responsible for the victims' murders, saying he acted with the intent to kill.
"All of their lives were taken by Jose Vladimir Larin Garcia," Paixao said. "When you put a loaded firearm up to somebody's head, and you pull back that trigger...that is express intent to kill."
Disputing the defense argument that there was another man in the car who was responsible for the killings, Paixao reminded jurors of key facts in the case – including how Larin Garcia hid underneath a truck immediately after the shootings and removed his jacket and shoes that were covered in the victims' blood.
She recalled Larin Garcia's friend buying him a bus ticket under a fake name and that he shaved his head before trying to leave the state.
The jury heard again about how Larin Garcia told a friend days before the murders that he wanted to kill someone – and how bullets found at the scene match those found in his bedroom and car.
On the issue of competing expert witnesses in this case, the prosecutor told the jury how their blood spatter expert used science to calculate that Larin Garcia was the only person in the car with the victims.
Paixao said the defense's counterpart expert had faulty methods in experiments such as stuffing a pillow in an investigator's suit to mimic Larin Garcia's weight of more than 300 pounds at the time – and using 1% milk with red food dye as a substitute for blood.
"He literally used milk and red dye and had the audacity to come in front of you and say, 'it's the same viscosity, it's the same thing,'" Paixao said.
Ahead of the defense team's closing arguments Thursday, Paixao left the jury with a final thought before they will decide whether Larin Garcia is guilty: "I asked you to come back with a verdict of guilty against Jose Vladimir Larin Garcia for stealing...every single one of them."
Judge Villalobos Wednesday also denied a motion by the defense to dismiss the case.
In late November, defense attorneys John Patrick Dolan and Anthony Valente introduced a motion to dismiss. It was in response to previously "lost" evidence related to the case that was rediscovered midway through the second trial.
The evidence included a long-missing eighth bullet casing that was fired by the same weapon as the other bullets used in the murders, and is believed to have been among debris that was swept up by a tow truck driver from around the car at the murder scene.
Each of the four victims is thought to have been shot twice – but only seven casings were found at the scenes.
In December, Judge Anthony Villalobos denied a motion by the defense for a mistrial, instead ruling to proceed and exclude the bullet casing from being presented to the jury, as if it never existed.
"The challenge here is this is in the middle of a second trial. And it changes the state of the evidence," Dolan argued at the time. "Evidence to come up in the middle of a second trial on a quadruple murder is not acceptable when we're trying to put on a case based on the state of the evidence."
BACKGROUND:
Jose Larin Garcia, a Cathedral City man, is accused of killing four people (ages 17-25): Carlos Campos, Jacob Montgomery, Yuliana Garcia and Juan Duarte Raya nearly four years ago.
The four victims were all found shot and killed on the night of February 3rd, 2019.
Three of the victims were found inside a car that crashed at Sunny Dunes and El Placer roads. The fourth victim was discovered in the street on Canon Dr. few blocks away.
When police arrived on scene, they found Larin Garcia hiding under a truck. They say he appeared intoxicated and covered in blood.
Larin Garcia was taken to Desert Regional Medical Center for treatment. Security footage shows him running from the hospital later that night.
Detectives have testified he then went to a friend’s house who he had buy him a one-way bus ticket to Florida using a fake name. Prosecutors say he was preparing to flee – shaving his head and beard to change his appearance. He was arrested waiting at the bus stop.
Larin Garcia is charged with four counts of murder. He also faces a special-circumstance allegation of committing multiple murders, opening him to the death penalty if convicted.
WEEK 11 IN COURT:
The prosecution incisively cross-examined the defense's expert witness, a crime scene re-constructionist.
The prosecution continued poking holes in a defense expert's testimony.
The judge ruled to exclude a defense expert's experiment that substituted milk for blood.
WEEK 10 IN COURT:
A judge ruled defense crime scene re-constructionist Randolph Beasley would be allowed to testify before the jury.
New details were revealed about a jail security incident involving suspect Jose Larin Garcia tampering with a lock.
Beasley aimed to recreate the crime scene on the courtroom floor.
The reconstruction's goal was to prove three people could have fit in the back seat of the Toyota Corolla in this case.
WEEK 9 IN COURT:
The defense called two Palm Springs Police Department employees to the stand to explain why audio recordings from the night no longer exist.
The judge denied a defense motion to acquit the defendant.
WEEK 8 IN COURT:
A DNA expert continued testimony about apparent blood swabbed from key pieces of evidence.
The prosecution's blood stain pattern interpreter testified about calculating the victims' positions in their final moments.
The prosecution rested its case.
WEEK 7 IN COURT:
After about a month off from the trial, the judge gave consideration to a defense request for a mistrial due to new evidence being discovered nearly four years after the crimes.
The mistrial was ultimately denied and the most incriminating piece of evidence was excluded.
The jury returned and testimony continued with a DNA expert.
WEEK 6 IN COURT:
A Palm Springs detective testified about finding a variety of ammunition in Larin Garcia's bedroom.
The judge excused the jury for nearly a month after new, incriminating evidence previously thought to be lost was discovered.
WEEK 5 IN COURT:
A forensic toxicologist testified about whether drugs or alcohol were detected in the victims' blood samples. A fingerprint examiner who processed seven 9mm bullet casings in this case said he did not find any fingerprints on them.
A DOJ criminalist and weapons expert told the jury after examining the bullet casings from the scene that she believes they were all fired from the same weapon.
Jurors heard an hours-long recording of the undercover operation in Larin Garcia's jail cell.
An undercover agent gave testimony about what Larin Garcia told him while he was posing as an inmate in jail.
WEEK 4 IN COURT:
A friend of Larin Garcia's told the jury that the defendant showed him a gun and threatened to kill someone just days before the murders.
A PSPD detective testified about evidence she collected from the scene and security video she retrieved of Larin Garcia running out of the hospital.
A girlfriend of one of the victims' spoke about showing police Facebook messages sent the night of the murders regarding the fentanyl drug deal at the heart of these murders.
The man the defense says claimed responsibility for the murders testified he did not kill the four victims in this case.
WEEK 3 IN COURT:
Last week, a family friend who harbored Larin Garcia after he fled the from the hospital testified. The jury also heard from the investigator who arrested him later that night at an Indio bus stop.
Larin Garcia's mother took the stand, revealing he called her the night of the murders and she brought him clothes and a cell phone after he ran from the hospital.
Medical examiners testified the victims were all killed instantly by gunshot wounds to the head.
A friend of the defendant spoke about a key phone call she got from the defendant just after the murders happened.
WEEK 2 IN COURT:
The jury heard from a police investigator and a friend of some of the victims.
A hospital nurse who treated Larin Garcia as a trauma patient the night of the murders testified he ran from the emergency department.
A Palm Springs police officer gave testimony key to the defense argument that another man carried out the shootings.
The jury was brought on-location to the scene of the crimes.
WEEK 1 IN COURT:
During opening statements, prosecutor and Deputy District Attorney Samantha Paixao asked the jury to hold Larin Garcia responsible for the four lives she said he stole.
Defense attorney John Patrick Dolan argued that another man, John Olvera, was responsible for the murders.
The jury heard from some of the first people on scene after the murders, including neighbors who saw the dead bodies and the police officer who first made contact with the suspect.
