Boyfriend Gets Death Penalty in Murder Plot

An Orange County jury returned a death verdict Friday against William Noguera, a 22-year-old Los Angeles County man convicted of murdering his girlfriend’s mother in 1983 in hopes of sharing in a $25,000 life insurance policy.

Jury foreman John L. Lindgren of Laguna Hills said it was the “viciousness” of Noguera’s crime that swayed the jury after two days of deliberations.

Noguera is scheduled to be sentenced July 31 by Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald. There is only one younger Death Row inmate in California.

Noguera, of Valinda, was convicted March 29 of using a martial arts baton in the bludgeoning death of Jovita V. Navarro of La Habra. Noguera and Navarro’s daughter, Dominique, were accused of conspiring to murder Navarro for the insurance proceeds.

The daughter, who was 16 at the time of the killing, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1984 and was ordered held in the custody of the California Youth Authority no later than her 25th birthday. She refused to testify against Noguera.

Defense attorney Benjamin R. Campos, had urged the jury to consider Noguera’s youth, but “obviously they weren’t persuaded,” he said Friday.

The prosecutor said Noguera fully deserves the death penalty.

“The case was so atrocious, so deliberate,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard M. King. “We felt it was our duty to submit the death penalty. And justice was done.”

Noguera’s mother and sister, who insisted after the conviction in March that a mistake had been made, were not present Friday.

Noguera’s defense was shaken when a witness who had established an alibi during his trial returned to the stand to recant her testimony.

Marjorie Noone told jurors that she had “lied” when she swore that she and Noguera were in bed at the time of the crime.

Testifying under a grant of immunity from prosecution for perjury, Noone said she had delivered false testimony after Noguera threatened her and her family if she failed to cooperate.

Also bolstering the prosecution’s case was the testimony of Ricky Abrams, a thrice-convicted auto thief who testified that he, Noguera and Dominique Navarro planned the murder together. He said he never agreed to kill the woman but listened as the other two laid plans to fake a burglary to throw police off the track.

Assuming that Fitzgerald imposes the sentence in July, the case will automatically be reviewed by the state Supreme Court. Campos also has asked the judge to order a new trial.

Another inmate sentenced to death reached San Quentin Prison Friday, bringing to 209 the number of inmates on California’s Death Row, according to David R. Langerman, a prison spokesman.

The youngest Death Row inmate is Tiequon Cox, 21. He was convicted of killing four persons execution style in 1984. Authorities believed that the Los Angeles murders were a case of mistaken identity.