A mistrial was declared Tuesday when jurors could not reach a verdict in the case against a 54-year-old man charged with fatally stabbing his wife in their San Juan Capistrano home over four years ago.
In the fifth day of deliberations, jurors told Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard King they could not reach a verdict for first-degree murder in the case against Sebastian Garcia Ramirez, who is accused of beating and stabbing to death 45-year-old Lydia Garcia on Jan. 14, 2020.
That prompted prosecutors to dismiss a first-degree murder charge against Ramirez to help jurors move along to the lesser charges they were allowed to consider. But the jurors quickly notified King that they could not agree on a verdict of second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter.
King then declared a mistrial. The jurors said they were split 9-3 for second-degree murder. A second-degree murder conviction would mean a sentence of 16 years to life in prison, but a manslaughter conviction would mean three to 11 years in prison without the defendant having to seek parole.
Defense attorney Cameron Talley argued for a mistrial when jurors could not reach a verdict on first-degree murder. He said having to argue against first-degree murder during the trial altered his defense strategy.
“I would have conducted an entirely different trial strategy if there was no first-degree murder,” Talley said.
King responded that he “doesn’t see prejudice to the defense’s trial tactics … The arguments really focused on the difference between second-degree and voluntary manslaughter.”
The attorneys will return April 12 to discuss whether there should be a retrial.
Ramirez was charged with murder with a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon.
In his opening statement during the trial, Senior Deputy District Attorney Seton Hunt called Ramirez a “jealous, paranoid man … who exercised the ultimate control” over Garcia “by killing her.”
Ramirez lived with his wife, their daughter Natalie and nephew Miguel Garcia, along with another couple, in a town home at 26225 Cedar Grove Court. Another couple lived at the home, but were out of town when the victim was killed.
The defendant “believed the victim was having an affair and wanted to know where she was at all times,” Hunt said.
He told jurors that one of Garcia’s two adult daughters had left flowers at the door of the San Juan Capistrano home because she was grateful she had just gotten a new job and wanted to thank her mother.
Miguel Garcia testified that Ramirez grilled him about the flowers, but Garcia told Ramirez he didn’t know where they came from. Ramirez also repeatedly asked him if his wife was having an affair, and Garcia had the same response, Garcia testified.
“My aunt was unhappy in her relationship with my uncle,” Miguel Garcia told jurors from the stand.
She wanted to leave, but “he didn’t want to let her go,” Garcia said.
Ramirez was so possessive he had an app that would track his wife’s movements, and he would get upset if she spent too much time in the cafeteria at work, Garcia testified.
Miguel Garcia said his aunt did not socialize much.
“She was a homebody,” he said.
She worked at Kaiser Permanente and her life revolved around her two daughters mostly, Miguel Garcia said.
“He asked me, `Do you know who brought these flowers?”’ Garcia testified. “He was really upset. … He stomped on them.”
According to Hunt, the victim returned home about 6 p.m. The couple had been “arguing off and on for about 2 1/2 hours that day about the flowers,” the prosecutor said. Lydia Garcia went to the gym at about 8 p.m. and returned home at about 9 p.m.
Miguel Garcia testified that he asked his uncle for some wine and he took the bottle to his room to drink while listening to music. Again, his uncle angrily asked him if he knew about any affairs the victim was having, Garcia said.
A short time later, Garcia said he could hear his aunt calling his name with a muffled voice, he testified. So he went to her room and saw his uncle straddling his wife, he said.
“I took him off and she was already covering her neck to stop the bleeding,” Garcia testified.
The two men got into a struggle, he said.
“At one point we were face to face and he was trying to stab me so I got the knife out of his hand,” he testified. “Then I put him on the bed and said, `stop, stop.”’
He shoved his uncle into his own room so he could help his aunt, he testified. But the defendant got loose and came back and chased after Garcia with either the wine bottle or a knife, Garcia testified.
Garcia ran outside and tried to dial 911 with his blood-covered phone, but he was shaking too much, he testified. So he ran to a neighbor to call sheriff’s deputies, he said, adding that he dropped the knife near a stop sign.
Garcia later confronted Ramirez again in the home.
“I started throwing things at him because I was so angry at him,” Garcia testified. “Pictures, a flower pot, pretty much everything I saw.”
According to Hunt, when Ramirez found out his daughter had left the flowers, he called her and said she was the “dumbest daughter” for not telling him.