SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A San Diego man charged with killing his girlfriend, who disappeared and was later found dead in Mexico, has been convicted of her murder.
A jury convicted Nery Roberto Garcia, 36, last week of first-degree murder for the 2021 death of 48-year-old Faviola Calderon.
Calderon was reported missing on July 29, 2021, after she didn't show up to work, San Diego police said.
In her closing argument at Garcia's trial, Deputy District Attorney Carrie Johnson told jurors that Garcia strangled and stabbed Calderon in National City in the early morning hours of July 28, then drove her body across the border.
Jurors also convicted Garcia of attempted murder and domestic violence charges stemming from two other incidents, both involving Calderon.
For the attempted murder count, Johnson alleged that around two months prior to Calderon's death, Garcia poured rat poison into her water, which caused her to fall ill and sent her to the hospital.
The prosecutor alleged that in the months prior to Calderon's death, Garcia had sent messages to a friend of his detailing his desire to kill Calderon because he believed she had cheated on him. One of those messages described strangling Calderon with a chain.
According to the prosecutor, Garcia admitted to his friend that he killed Calderon, and similarly confessed to investigators after his arrest.
Garcia's defense attorney, John O'Connell, alleged Garcia's confession was erroneous. The attorney said investigators suggested certain details to Garcia during their interrogation, including strangulation and the idea that the killing took place in National City.
"They're telling him that he has to do this for Faviola's family, that they need justice," according to O'Connell, who told jurors Garcia was "parroting back what they're asking him to say."
O'Connell also said the evidence contradicted the prosecution's theory and the details in Garcia's admissions to detectives.
He said Calderon had undergone two autopsies by medical examiners in both Mexico and the United States and neither one yielded concrete evidence that she had been strangled.
Regarding the poisoning, O'Connell said testing did not reveal the presence of poison in Calderon or her drink. Instead, the tests showed there was a chemical compound that is found in poisons, but also many common household foods and drinks.
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