Countywide : Death Row Inmate Gets Dec. 16 Execution Date

An Orange County Superior Court judge signed a death warrant Friday for one of the youngest killers ever sent to California’s Death Row, but authorities said they expect the Dec. 16 execution date to be postponed by a new round of federal appeals.

William Noguera was just 18 when he used a martial arts baton to bludgeon his girlfriend’s mother in April, 1983, so the young couple could make off with the proceeds of a $25,000 life insurance policy. He was 23 at the time he was sentenced to death and become the second-youngest killer on the state’s Death Row.

Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald signed Noguera’s death warrant Friday, 6 1/2 years after sentencing him to death in January, 1988. At the time, Fitzgerald called the murder particularly “cruel and vicious.”

Noguera and his 16-year-old girlfriend, Dominique Navarro, plotted and carried out the murder of Jovita V. Navarro, 42, who was strangled in her La Habra home and suffered 14 blows to the head.

Trial testimony indicated the victim was trying to keep her daughter from dating Noguera.

Dominique Navarro refused to testify against her boyfriend, and was convicted of murder in 1984. She was sentenced to the California Youth Authority.

Since Noguera’s sentencing, he has exhausted his efforts to have California courts overturn his conviction. While no new appeals are pending, officials say Noguera will likely seek new reviews of his case in federal courts.

“In all likelihood, his execution will not take place anytime soon,” said Deputy Atty. Gen. Susan Frierson.

Noguera’s attorney was out of town Friday and could not be reached for comment. Deputy Dist. Atty. Rick King, who prosecuted Noguera, said Friday “this was just a horrible, vicious murder.”