Court Overturns Murder Conviction in 2012 Disappearance of 15-Year-Old Sierra LaMar

Court Overturns Murder Conviction in 2012 Disappearance of 15-Year-Old Sierra LaMar
On February 28, 2026, the 6th District Court of Appeal overturned the first-degree murder conviction of Antolin Garcia-Torres in the 2012 disappearance of 15-year-old Sierra LaMar. Garcia-Torres, who had been serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, may now face a new trial if prosecutors choose to move forward.
Sierra LaMar vanished on March 16, 2012, after missing her bus to Ann Sobrato High School in Morgan Hill, California.
In 2017, Garcia-Torres was convicted of first-degree murder during the commission of a kidnapping and sentenced to life without parole. But the appellate court ruled there was insufficient evidence of willful, deliberate and premeditated murder or specific intent to kill. The court also found it was prejudicial error to try the murder charge alongside three attempted kidnapping counts from an unrelated case years earlier.
As a result, all convictions were reversed.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said it is reviewing the opinion and will continue seeking justice for Sierra.
Garcia-Torres remains incarcerated at Corcoran State Prison while the case moves forward.
Fourteen years after she disappeared, Sierra’s body has never been recovered — and her family now faces the possibility of reliving the trial once again.

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