SIMI VALLEY : Guatemalan Admits Killing Immigrant
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A Guatemalan immigrant admitted Tuesday in Ventura County Superior Court that he fatally stabbed a countryman in a drunken brawl in Simi Valley last year.
Oscar Garnica-Vargas, 27, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter using a deadly weapon in the death of Ezequiel Romero, 37. Romero died July 19 after being stabbed in the abdomen with a kitchen knife. At one time, Romero claimed to be a member of a rightist death squad in their homeland.
Garnica-Vargas faces a maximum 12-year prison sentence. His sentencing is scheduled for May 15.
Last week, a jury acquitted Garnica-Vargas and a fellow immigrant, Julio Arriaza, 27, of first-degree murder in the case. After four days of deliberation, the jury failed to reach verdicts on lesser charges of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter. Garnica-Vargas was being held pending the prosecutor’s decision on retrying the case when he agreed to plead guilty to the lesser charge.
Arriaza is in jail, pending a plea hearing scheduled for 9 a.m. today.
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