Ritualistic Hollywood Dismemberment Murder Conviction Upheld

LOS ANGELES, CA — A state appeals court panel Tuesday upheld a Pennsylvania man's conviction for fatally stabbing a Hollywood resident whose body was dismembered in a downtown Los Angeles hotel room in what the prosecution argued was a ritualistic killing.

A three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense's contention that there was insufficient evidence to support the special circumstance findings of murder during the commission of a robbery or attempted robbery and murder involving the infliction of torture against Edward Garcia Jr., now 43.

In their 20-page ruling, the appellate court justices found that "the only reasonable conclusion is that Garcia was a major participant in the robbery and killing" of 49-year-old Herbert Tracy White in a room at the Continental Hotel on Nov. 28, 2010.

The victim's wrists were "bound with duct tape and a wrapped condom was forced into his throat, impairing his respiration and ability to cry out," the appeals court panel noted.

The justices also rejected the defense's contention that the trial court erred in admitting evidence about his statements to two former friends regarding killing and dismemberment, including one who was informed by Garcia that he and his wife, Melissa, had lured a man to their residence in York, Pennsylvania, where they had planned to rob and kill him, dismember his body and freeze his body parts, according to the appellate court panel's opinion.

Garcia ended up entering a plea to a misdemeanor charge in the 2009 case, in which police spotted Garcia chasing that victim down the street.

Garcia was convicted in June 2015 of first-degree murder for White's killing, along with the two special circumstance allegations. He was sentenced about two months later to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Melissa Garcia pleaded guilty in September 2015 to voluntary manslaughter with a knife-use allegation, along with residential burglary, robbery and mayhem in connection with White's stabbing death. She was sentenced to 16 years and eight months in state prison moments after she told the victim's family members that she was "so sorry."

"There's not a day that goes by that I don't think what happened," she said then.

A murder count against her was dismissed as a result of her plea, in which she agreed to waive credit for nearly five years she had already spent in county jail.

"I thought I had seen the depths of human depravity. I was wrong," Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler said at Melissa Garcia's sentencing, reiterating a comment he made during her husband's sentencing.

Deputy District Attorney John McKinney told jurors during Edward Garcia Jr.'s trial that the couple were carrying out a "fantasy they had about cutting up a human being." He said the victim's body had "very little to no blood" left in it as a result of what he said a prosecution witness had opined was a "ritualistic killing."

Some of the victim's remains were later found in a backpack in a corner of the room, while other body parts were found bundled up underneath the blood- stained mattress which had been flipped over and stripped of its sheets, McKinney said.

Garcia's trial attorney, Haydeh Takasugi, acknowledged that Garcia was responsible for the killing, but disputed that the killing was premeditated.

Takasugi urged jurors to acquit Garcia of first-degree murder and to reject the special circumstance allegations, saying that there was no evidence that Garcia or his wife stole valuables from the victim and that the majority of the injuries were inflicted either at or near the time of White's death or after he had already been killed.

The two initially met White when he gave them money outside a bank in Hollywood, then called him early that morning to pick them up after their belongings got wet in the rain, the defense attorney told jurors.

The victim's mother, Elizabeth White-Peterson, called her son's killing an "overkill" and told the judge that her son's casket could not be open because of the way his body was "decimated."

"All he ever wanted was to help people," she said. "I'm so sorry he ever laid eyes on these people."

The victim was described by the prosecutor during the trial as a former cocaine addict who "hated drugs" and had dedicated his life to helping other addicts.

City News Service; Photo: Shutterstock