Man Guilty in Deaths of Woman, Her Fetus

An Anaheim man accused of killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend to avoid paying child support, then dumping her body off the coast, was found guilty Monday--although the victim’s body hasn’t been recovered.

Richard Tovar, 23, faces possible life in prison for the murders of 20-year-old Jeannette Gomez Espeleta, a Fullerton bank teller, and the eight-month fetus she was carrying when she disappeared in 1998.

Divers spent days combing the waters off Long Beach trying to find her body and other clues in the crime.

The Orange County jury heard testimony of a witness who said he helped Tovar and another man dump Espeleta’s body near an oil platform near Long Beach Harbor. Family members also testified that Tovar didn’t have an alibi. Jurors deliberated three hours before arriving at a verdict.

“There was no body, no weapon, and we couldn’t find the victim’s car,” said Fullerton Sgt. Kevin Hamilton. “But there wasn’t a lot of speculation over what happened. We had some pretty clear evidence.”

Police believe Espeleta was shot to death shortly after meeting with Tovar on July 17, 1998, near MainPlace/Santa Ana. Later, police said Tovar took the body to the Long Beach marina where he boarded a 21-foot ski boat and motored into the ocean along with two other men, Hector Rodriguez and Nicholas Gray.

Gray, a Fullerton resident, testified that the men wrapped Espeleta’s body with chains and weights and threw her into the ocean about a mile offshore.

The break in the case came when a girlfriend of Rodriguez told investigators that the men had expressed concern about being caught for the killing. Espeleta’s sister, Jennifer Gomez Espeleta, also told investigators that shortly before her sister’s disappearance, she had served Tovar with court papers notifying him that he would be responsible for child support.

During the one-week trial, prosecutors also presented evidence that contradicted Tovar’s account of his whereabouts at the time of the murder, including the testimony of a Fullerton detective who interviewed Tovar.

Witnesses also testified that they saw Tovar rent the vessel at an Orange boat shop.

Tovar, an assistant at the Orange County auditor-controller’s office, did not have a criminal record at the time of his arrest.

“They [prosecutors] didn’t prove that she was dead, or that the defendant did it. . . . She could still be alive,” said Bob Corrado, Tovar’s attorney.

Tovar’s accomplices also faced murder charges: Gray, 22, is expected to plead guilty to manslaughter charges later this year. In July, a jury returned a murder conviction against Rodriguez, 24.

Tovar was charged with a double murder because of a 1994 state Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for prosecutions in the killing of a fetus.

At the time of her disappearance, Espeleta was only weeks away from giving birth and had already named her baby girl Alyssa. Her body was never recovered despite Gray’s assistance and an exhaustive search by dive teams.

Murder cases in which a body is not recovered are rare but not unheard of. In Orange County, there have been at least four such cases.

“A no-body case is always a tough case for any police agency,” Hamilton said. “But the fact that makes this case so tough is when you think about how heinous the crime was: to kill the mother of the 8-month-old baby you believe to be your own.”