Opinion ID: 1254168
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: December 29-31, 1981.

Text: Garcia met appellant at the doughnut shop at 3:00 p.m. on December 29, 1981. It was raining. She saw that he had three other people in his car. He came to the car she was driving, her mother's Ford Bronco. Appellant gave Garcia two envelopes. He told her that her guns were in one envelope. The other was money he gave her to help her out because her house was not selling. Appellant told Garcia that he was going to take the people with him to the place where she had dug holes. He would tell the people that they were going to meet Tony, a Mafia acquaintance, at Tony's secluded shack in the woods and would bury money on Tony's property. He went back to his own car, and returned with Weller and the two people she later learned were de Laet and MacVicar. The group then drove in Garcia's Bronco vehicle to the location at which Garcia had dug the holes, a 15-minute drive. Appellant told de Laet and MacVicar that he and Garcia would check the site first. Appellant was angry when he found the holes filled with water and accused Garcia of failing to follow his directions. He directed her to bring the man (MacVicar) to the woods to count the money before it was buried. She did so. Appellant had MacVicar lean against a tree for a weapons search by Garcia. While she was searching MacVicar, appellant shot him. Garcia did not see him prepare to do that. MacVicar just dropped to the ground and when Garcia turned she saw appellant with a gun with a long black thing on the end. Appellant then ordered Garcia to help him drag MacVicar to one of the holes, about 30 feet away. She was scared to death and complied. At appellant's direction, Garcia then returned to the Bronco and brought de Laet back. Asked at trial if she knew at that point what was going to happen to de Laet, Garcia testified that she thought so but did not remember what she was thinking. Appellant shot de Laet while Garcia was performing another weapons search. As de Laet was gasping on the ground, appellant shot her in the head a second time. He then directed Garcia to bring Weller and the two sacks of lime to the site. When Garcia returned appellant directed the two women to dig the holes bigger and deeper, undress the bodies, and put the clothing and jewelry of the victims in one green garbage bag, their clothing in another, and paper things in a third. He was holding what Garcia believed was one of the Datonic firearms in his hand. Garcia thought it was a Datonic because it had a shiny barrel, but conceded that she would not know the difference between a shiny Datonic and a shiny Colt .45-caliber or other kind of gun. Appellant produced a hacksaw, stating that he was going to remove the heads and hands of the victims to prevent identification. The hacksaw broke. He used a hatchet to complete the task. The body parts were put into a fourth garbage bag, which was left under a bush. Appellant told Garcia to return the next day and hide that bag in a different location. He told Garcia that the heads and hands should not be found in the same area as the bodies. The other three bags were left just inside the barbed wire fence near the road for Garcia to pick up the following day. Garcia was told to burn anything in the bags that was paper, to put paint or something on the clothing before disposing of it so that no one could use it if it were taken from the garbage, and to dump the bag with the metal items into the ocean. Appellant told her she had better take care of this as he was having her followed and her family would be killed if she did not comply. The bodies were covered with the lime and with dirt. Brush was used to cover the area. These events took between two and three hours. Appellant threatened to kill the women if they talked and threatened to kill Garcia's family if she did not follow his instructions. Appellant, Weller, and Garcia returned to the doughnut shop, where the rental car had been left. Appellant and Weller changed clothes. Garcia had to take her shoes off. She also took off all of the clothes she was wearing except her jeans and a top. Her clothes were passed back to Weller, who was in the backseat. At appellant's direction Garcia drove the Bronco to the Dream Inn in Santa Cruz. He and Weller followed in the rental car. Weller was directed to get a room. Garcia was told to call her mother and have her mother bring Garcia a new pair of shoes. The two women dried their hair and cleaned mud and dirt from their fingernails. While the three waited in the hotel room, appellant snorted cocaine and slapped Weller when she tried to take some. He took Garcia into the bathroom where he beat her, accusing her of having champagne on her wedding night and stating that he had warned her that the Mafia would kill her the next time she drank alcohol. He then ordered Garcia to apologize to Weller for drinking champagne. When Garcia's mother arrived, appellant ordered Garcia and Weller to spend the night at a nearby Holiday Inn, saying that Weller was being sent to guard Garcia. They were told to return at 9:00 the next morning. Garcia made no effort to contact police because she was sure Weller would kill her and appellant would have her family killed if she did so. When Garcia returned the next morning, appellant, still taking cocaine, shut Garcia in the bathroom, beat her, and threatened to kill her brother and her sister's children if she talked. Garcia was confined in the bathroom for hours. During that time she begged her mother to save her brother's life. At 1:00 p.m., all four left the motel. Garcia drove to the site of the murders, reached through the fence and retrieved the three bags left there. She did not move the bag containing the body parts. She drove to Monterey, rented a room with a fireplace at the Del Monte Hyatt, burned the victims' credit cards, passports, and papers, including the sacks that had held the lime, and, on the following day, threw the metal items, the bullet casings, and the hacksaw into Monterey Bay near Cannery Row. After putting paint on them, she put the victims' clothing in trash bins in a Carmel Valley shopping center. She did everything she was told except take care of the heads and hands.