A person accused of killing a homeless lady in Huntington Seashore greater than two years in the past strangled her to demise earlier than decapitating her and burying her physique, Orange County prosecutors argued in courtroom Wednesday.
However the protection legal professional for Antonio Padilla stated the girl had been unwell and her reason behind demise was by no means confirmed. Public Defender Daniel Kim additionally tried to solid suspicion on different attainable suspects throughout opening statements in Padilla’s trial.
Padilla faces one rely of homicide in reference to the demise of Gina Marie Lockhart. Her physique was unearthed by detectives within the yard of his mother and father’ cell residence on the 7800 block of Slater Avenue on July 17, 2022.
“The lingering query is … how did Ms. Lockhart die?” Kim stated.
Padilla was homeless on the time of the girl’s demise and sometimes stayed in a shed behind the property, Janine Madera, senior prosecutor for the Orange County District Lawyer’s workplace, advised the jury. His kin started smelling a foul odor on the residence about 15 days earlier than Lockhart’s physique was discovered. Loud noises could possibly be heard from the shed within the days that adopted, and the defendant’s sister reported seeing her brother burying one thing within the yard.
At one level, Padilla’s mom noticed him carrying objects wrapped in blankets that seemed to be stained with blood and crawling with maggots, Madera stated. He refused to point out her what was inside and fled when she determined to name the police.
Though officers responding on July 11 took be aware of a powerful odor on the residence, they didn’t instantly suspect a criminal offense, Madera stated. They thought a lifeless animal could have been on the premises, and prompt that residents deep clear the realm.
When the defendant’s mom tried to tidy up the shed, she discovered a patch of hair nonetheless hooked up to a chunk of scalp, ladies’s clothes she didn’t acknowledge and a unclean pair of Vans footwear that have been lacking laces. She referred to as police once more on July 16 and confirmed them what she discovered.
Investigators started excavating the lot and located Lockhart’s head and physique buried collectively in a makeshift grave. She had been hogtied with a pair of shoelaces.
A cadaver canine searched the realm and indicated to officers that the sufferer could have been killed within the shed. Blood matching Lockhart’s DNA was discovered on its ground and on the blade of a big knife stashed in a toolbox inside.
There have been no indicators of a battle, sexual assault or damage discovered on the sufferer’s physique apart from her decapitation, which led forensic investigators to conclude the latter passed off after she had already died. Madera prompt she had been strangled, and any bodily indicators of that may be troublesome to establish conclusively after her head was eliminated.
“It was a clear minimize, no hesitation marks,” Madera stated.
Padilla’s protection legal professional emphasised the absence of damaged bones or different accidents inflicted on the sufferer previous to her demise. Kim stated Lockhart was an obvious alcoholic unwell that was exacerbated by life on the road.
Lockhart was 60 on the time she died and had been hospitalized in August 2021 with seizures that may final so long as two minutes, Kim stated. She had been admitted to a hospital for alcohol poisoning on June 24, 2022, lower than every week earlier than she was final seen alive.
An worker at a taco truck usually parked at Morgan Lane and Slater Avenue, Emilia Martinez, could have been the final individual to work together with the sufferer. The witness testified that she noticed Lockhart in a close-by yard two years in the past on June 30, apparently clutching her stomach in ache and mendacity within the fetal place.
Martinez additionally recalled regularly seeing Lockhart with a homeless man the sufferer had recognized as her boyfriend, Rick Burnhardt. Kim tried to color Burnhardt as one of many final individuals who had contact with Lockhart and a possible suspect in her demise.
Nevertheless, the prosecutor identified that Burnhardt was working and staying at a job web site in Lengthy Seashore on the time the sufferer went lacking. She additionally famous cadaver canine that searched his van didn’t seem to seek out something suspicious.
The protection legal professional advised jurors that Antonio Padilla’s father, Mario Padilla, was seen rummaging in and across the shed as police investigated their property. He claimed the shed was really the latter’s “man cave” and that his son would crash contained in the cell residence as a substitute of the shed. Kim additionally stated his shopper’s father planted tomatoes over the positioning the place Lockhart was buried, insinuating he tried to hide the grave.
Though the defendant and sufferer have been each homeless and recognized to frequent the identical space, there didn’t seem like any prior connection between them, Madera stated. Lockhart had been dwelling on the road for about two years, her mom, Donna Ashbaugh, stated from the witness stand Wednesday. They managed to be in contact with one another and spoke on the telephone at the least as soon as every week.
Ashbaugh described her daughter’s demeanor the final time they spoke as “form of upbeat. She would at all times name me early to guarantee me she was OK.”
Licas writes for the Day by day Pilot
