Overview
- Margarita Jimenez, 34, was sentenced to 80 years to life, including 50 years for murder doubled due to a prior conviction, 25 years for firearm use, and five years for prior strikes.
- Jorge Garfias, 38, received 25 years to life, with the judge denying his motion for a new trial and imposing no additional sentencing enhancements.
- Judge Catherine Voelker declined to strike Jimenez’s prior, denied Garfias’s request to remain in county jail, ordered restitution and in-prison drug counseling, and directed their transfers to Valley State Prison and Wasco State Prison.
- Eight of Yanelly Vargas’s relatives delivered victim impact statements urging the maximum punishment, and the court said the sentences reflect the gravity of the violence.
- Prosecutors said Garfias lured Vargas from an Oxnard bar to a nearby lot where the pair assaulted her; surveillance captured Jimenez chasing and shooting her once in the chest, and investigators documented a 9 mm shell casing, a blood trail, acrylic nails matched to Jimenez, a blood-stained rope, and autopsy findings of blunt-force injuries and signs of strangulation.