This is a super sad case, and there is not a lot of information online, I could not find any news articles at all, other than police reports, which honestly makes it even sader. Francis’s story deserves to be told, she lived a full life and was brutally and savagely taken away from her loved ones. No one deserves to die the way that she did.
On April 14, 2008 at 6:00 p.m., Missing Person, Flores, departed in a 2001 Honda S2000. She was last seen in the area of 14074 Van Nuys, Arleta.
Arleta is bordered by the Los Angeles districts of Mission Hills and North Hills on the north, Sun Valley on the east, Pacoima on the northeast, and Panorama City on the west. It lies within the 6th City Council district.
The area of Arleta was a relatively undeveloped portion in the west of the community of Pacoima. This area remained semirural up to World War II when manufacturers expanded their operations into the valley and created more jobs. In order to accommodate factory workers, residential development increased in the area.
Most of Pacoima developed into a multiethnic neighborhood with a significant population of African-American and Latino residents, whereas the western portion remained primarily white. The 5 Freewaywas built in the early 1960s and created a physical barrier between east and west Pacoima, and in the same period, residents in the western half led a petition and successfully broke from the neighborhood to form Arleta; the new neighborhood was officially recognized in 1968.
As industrial jobs began to decrease in the valley, many residents left the area in the 1980’s; following this, Arleta became much more diverse and as of the 2010s, it shares the majority Latino demographics of Pacoima.
FACTS AS THEY HAVE BEEN REPORTED.
Defendant Kills Francis Flores Francis Flores told her niece that defendant was “creepy” and that he was “perverted.” Flores knew defendant because he dated her roommate Tina Pen. On April 15, 2008, defendant killed Flores by strangulation. Defendant stuffed a sock in Flores’s mouth, taped her mouth, and covered her head with a plastic bag, which he taped around her neck. Defendant also taped Flores’s wrists and ankles.
Defendant loaded Flores into a large plastic container and stored the container in his bedroom closet in his parents’ house. Flores’s family worried when they did not hear from her. On April 17, 2008, Flores’s sister, Patricia Nevarez, filed a missing person’s report.
On April 24, 2008, Flores’s sister received text messages from Flores’s phone asking for Flores’s bank card number. Nevarez was suspicious that someone other than her sister sent the texts both because they were written in Spanish and because Flores was upset with her sister and would not have texted her. Nevarez tried to call Flores, but no one answered Flores’s phone. Flores’s cousin Frances Schmidt hired a private investigator to try to locate Flores. Defendant spoke to the investigator but refused to meet with him.
Beginning on April 15, 2008, Flores’s husband, Walter Campilongo received numerous text messages purportedly written by Flores asking about the pin number for 3 Flores’s bank card and requesting that he activate the bank card.1 Campilongo did not believe the texts were from Flores because they were in Spanish and because Flores did not use the bankcard to withdraw money. Defendant later admitted to sending the text messages to Nevarez and Campilongo.
Around the time of Flores’s killing, defendant owed numerous people money. He owed his father approximately $7,000. He owed his friend Daniel Tadeo approximately $4,200. Defendant’s friend Michael Camarillo wired him money.
Defendant told Camarillo he was broke and moved back to his parents’ home because he did not have enough money to afford an apartment. In the middle of April 2008, defendant borrowed money from his former high school coach, Mitchell Villa. Villa noticed that defendant had a bite on his left hand and that he appeared very stressed. Defendant also borrowed money from his cousin.
On April 16, 2008, using Flores’s Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card, defendant withdrew $300 from her bank account. 2. Flores’s Body and Car Are Found Approximately two months after her death, on June 13, 2008, Flores’s decomposing and partially liquefied body was found in a plastic container in defendant’s closet. Flores’s knees were pointing upward and her legs were spread.
Her purse was around her neck and papers were placed between her legs. Her sweater was torn. An autopsy revealed that defendant fractured two bones in Flores’s neck. The fractured bones were surrounded by muscle and difficult to break. Flores’s car was retrieved at Camarillo’s home.
Forensic tests showed that several areas, including the trunk and spoiler on Flores’s vehicle tested presumptively positive for blood. Two dogs trained to alert to cadaver scent alerted at the rear of Flores’s vehicle.
The dog handlers admitted that there was a possibility the scent could be 1 Flores and her husband had separated but were on good terms. 4 transferred. Analysts were unable to identify DNA profiles from any of the blood samples retrieved from Flores’s car.
Defendant Admits to Killing Flores In a tape-recorded conversation with his father, defendant’s father said “how cruel [or how barbaric] what you did” and asked defendant if he did “it here at the house.” Defendant answered affirmatively.
Defendant testified in his defense and claimed that the killing was accidental – the result of erotic asphyxiation. Defendant testified that he had sex with Flores twice before April 15, 2008, and according to defendant, she enjoyed erotic asphyxiation.
On April 15, 2008, Flores drove to defendant’s home, where he was going to change the oil in her car. According to defendant, Flores asked to do “a favor for a favor” instead of paying him in cash. Defendant further claimed that Flores asked him to place both of his hands around her neck and choke her. He followed Flores’s purported request, holding her neck for about one minute with both of his hands.
She told him that she would hold her breath. Defendant “freaked out” when blood started flowing from her nose. Defendant did not feel any pulse and listened for but did not hear any breathing. He thought about calling the police but did not. Defendant testified that because Flores’s body was limp he used duct tape to better manage it. He wrapped the tape around her ankles and hands.
He put her pants on and then took them off again. He put her in a bin and put her personal belongings on top of her. According to defendant he placed a sock in Flores’s mouth to keep blood from leaking out of her mouth.
He placed tape on her mouth because he was “worried” that blood “might leak somehow.” Defendant testified that he sent text messages from Flores’s phone to make it appear she was alive and he used her Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) card also to make it appear she was alive.
During cross-examination, defendant admitted that he had lied to police, lied to Villa, lied to his friends, and lied to Flores’s family. He lied to Villa about how he obtained the bite mark on his hand, stating that it was during a struggle with his father. 5 He lied to his girlfriend Pen when he was arrested, telling her that he had no idea why he was in a police car and promising her “I didn’t do anything.”
He lied to police during a three-hour interview. He “was just making stuff up. [He] was lying and throwing things out there. . . .” He lied about the amount of blood on the floor. He told police a “mystery woman” had picked up Flores. Defendant lied to his father about the smell in the house.
Through his text messages defendant lied to Campilongo and Nevarez. Defendant acknowledged that prior to trial, he never described the killing as an accident.
He also acknowledged asking his friend Juan Cano to lie to the police on his behalf.
Defendant was charged with one count of murder with malice aforethought. At the end of the jury trial, during closing argument, defense counsel focused on defendant’s credibility, identifying it as the principal issue at trial.
He argued: “Either you believe Mr. Garcia, or you don’t. And that’s the bottom line. Either you believe him or you don’t. He says it was an accident.” Defense counsel argued the “bottom line” was whether jurors believed defendant and the trial “boils down” to defendant’s credibility.
The prosecutor argued that he was not required to prove “exactly how the murder happened.” The prosecutor argued defendant was a “world class manipulator” and lied about everything, to his family, friends, girlfriend, the victim’s family, the investigator, police, and jurors. Defendant’s countless lies made him less believable and more apt to attempt to manipulate jurors.
He questioned defendant’s story that he previously had sex with the victim, pointing out that Flores was not interested in defendant and described him as perverted and creepy. Defendant was desperate because he borrowed money from numerous people.
The prosecutor argued that defendant might have hurt Flores in order to obtain her pin number to her bank card. The prosecutor suggested the blood splatter on the car and dogs who alerted to the car suggested that defendant hurt Flores. The alerts by the cadaver dogs made it more likely that it was blood on the car. The bite on the hand and torn 6 sweater also suggested a struggle.
The cadaver dogs’ scent detection on the car “tend to indicate” a struggle. A reasonable interpretation of the evidence was that defendant beat Flores in order to get her pin number. Given how the body was found, it suggested defendant wanted Flores dead. There was a bag over her head. Defendant not only strangled Flores but he broke two of her bones, which requires substantial pressure.
The absence of blood in the house suggests defendant contrived the reason for putting a sock in the victim’s mouth. It was more likely he put the sock over her mouth to stop her from biting him, and the bite indicated that she did not consent.
There was no need for him to put tape over a dead person’s mouth. The prosecutor questioned defendant’s story that he bound Flores in order to lift her.
Jurors found defendant guilty of willful, deliberate, and premeditated first degree murder. The court sentenced defendant to 25 years to life in prison and awarded him 1,743 days of presentence conduct credits.
https://homicide.latimes.com/post/francis-diana-floress
https://www.lapdonline.org/missing-person/frances-flores
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