LONG BEACH, Calif. - A judge has found a San Pedro man guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the 1996 strangulation death of a 15-year-old female schoolmate.
Nicholas Mavar, 22, was found guilty Wednesday in the death of Brenda Garcia, whose partially nude body was found Oct. 21, 1996, on the concrete floor of a park building in a San Pedro park. The Huntington Park girl had been reported missing four days earlier, after she was seen leaving her San Pedro school with an unidentified male.
Deputy District Attorney Richard Goul had sought a first-degree murder conviction, arguing that the killing was premeditated and occurred while Mavar tried to rape the girl.
During the six-day nonjury trial before Long Beach Superior Court Judge James B. Pierce, Mavar testified that he accidentally killed Garcia when she asked him to tighten a belt around her neck during sex in the park building. He testified that Garcia initiated the choking as a form of sexual arousal, and things got out of control.
Mavar was not arrested until nearly two years after the crime, when DNA evidence linked him to the crime scene. He faces between three and 11 years in prison when he is sentenced next month.