Transient Gets 15 Years to Life for Strangling Girlfriend

A 55-year-old homeless man was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years to life in prison for strangling his girlfriend and leaving her battered body on the steps of a Ventura elementary school.

While handing down the sentence, Superior Court Judge Vincent J. O’Neill Jr. told Jose Garcia that he wished he could eliminate any possibility of parole, given the number of women Garcia has beaten over the last 30 years.

“That’s not my job, though,” the judge said. “It’s up to the Board of Prison Terms.”

With two years credit for the time he has spent in County Jail, and a state policy that severe offenders serve 85% of the minimum term before becoming eligible for parole, Garcia could stand before a parole board in 10 or 11 years.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Bamieh said he doubted that any board would release Garcia, given his history of violence.

“You have eight other women who were choked by this guy,” Bamieh said. “It’s not going to happen. . . . We don’t parole murderers in California.”

A jury found Garcia guilty of second-degree murder last month, rejecting his assertions that he slept at a friend’s apartment when girlfriend Marsha Ann Lane was strangled on the steps of Lincoln Elementary School on Feb. 18, 1997.

A teacher found the 43-year-old woman’s body the next morning before classes began. Lane had been living on the streets of Ventura with Garcia.

During six interviews with police, Garcia maintained that he did not kill Lane. He told authorities that the couple got into a fight at the school, but he said he walked away from the argument and slept on a friend’s couch.

Garcia said nothing in his defense Wednesday.

Outside the courtroom, a former girlfriend of Garcia watched from behind a door. She was afraid, she said, to let Garcia see her, but she had come on behalf of the other wives and girlfriends he had hurt.