The only thing standing between Jose Antonio Garcia and 40 years in state prison is a Sept. 21 court date, when the Santa Ana man is scheduled to be sentenced for murdering his estranged wife in October 2010.
What is stunning about the case is Adriana Garcia had taken out a restraining order against her ex- due to his jealousy-fueled violence against her. If he couldn't have the mother of his five children, no one could. And no one will.
]
Despite being under that court order that legally prevented Garcia from contacting his 34-year-old estranged wife, he went to her home at 1402 S. Mohawk Dr., Santa Ana, the morning of Oct. 10, 2010, and shot her in the head, left her to die in a
bedroom and called 9-1-1.
When police arrived, he was sitting in his truck with his gun
pointed at his head. Following a nearly one-hour standoff with police
that ended after the man heard a tape recorded message from his father,
Garcia put the gun down, walked away from the truck and surrendered
without further incident. He still had the gun on him.
Adrina Garcia was rushed to a
hospital in grave condition and later died, leaving her children, who were then ages 7 to 18, motherless.
Adriana Garcia, 2010 OC Homicide No. 52: Husband Allegedly Violated Restraining Order, Shot Her
Following Jose Garcia's second-degree murder conviction Monday, the children are now essentially fatherless, too. That notion was not enough to cause any emotion to wash over the killer's face as the jury informed him of his fate. Tough guy to the end.
Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.