Trial to begin for teen charged in murder of girlfriend’s parents
Opening statements are expected to start Friday in the murder trial of a teenager charged with killing his girlfriend’s mother and stepfather, whose bodies were discovered buried in separate shallow graves.
Eighteen-year-old Giovanni Gallardo, who was 16 at the time of the killings but is charged as an adult, is accused of carrying out the October 2011 slayings at his girlfriend’s family home in Compton.
His girlfriend, Cynthia Alvarez, was convicted earlier this month of both murders.
During her trial, Alvarez, 16, blamed her boyfriend for the crimes, saying he attacked Gloria Villalta and Jose Lara in their trailer home on Atlantic Avenue. She claimed she did not want her parents dead but did not seek help because she was afraid of her boyfriend, whom she described as abusive.
Alvarez admitted during the trial that after the killings she and Gallardo drove her mother’s Jeep to buy party supplies while her mother’s corpse was decomposing in the back of the vehicle.
A jury deliberated for about three hours before convicting her of both murders.
Alvarez testified that she and Gallardo buried the body of Lara, 51, on the night of the killings. The body of Villalta, 58, would not fit in the same small grave, so the teens kept it in the back of the Jeep and later buried it in a vacant lot in Norwalk, she said.
ALSO:
Jackson trial: Dr. Murray’s salary was on AEG’s books
Sex offender took thousands of up-skirt videos, officials say
Friends, family mourn Kern beating victim at Bakersfield service
Twitter: @jackfleonard
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
