Monday’s hearing for Antolin Garcia Torres on charges of murder and attempted carjacking was rescheduled for April 16, according to a Santa Clara County Superior Court spokesman.
Garcia Torres, 22 of Morgan Hill, pleaded not guilty last month at the Hall of Justice in San Jose to the charge that he murdered Sierra LaMar, 15 of Morgan Hill, nearly two years ago.
He also pleaded not guilty to three unrelated charges of attempted carjacking in relation to three incidents in 2009 in which he is accused of making unwanted, violent advances on three different women in the parking lots of Morgan Hill Safeway stores.
Those pleas followed the Criminal Grand Jury’s indictment of Garcia Torres, which followed months of repeated delays in the defendant’s court proceedings. The Santa Clara County District Attorney chose to bring the case to the grand jury in response to those delays, authorities said.
Garcia Torres’ next hearing is scheduled for April 16 at the Hall of Justice.
Sierra disappeared from her mother’s home in north Morgan Hill March 16, 2012, and has not been seen or heard from since. Authorities say she was kidnapped while she was walking to her usual school bus stop near the intersection of Palm and Dougherty avenues.
Sierra was a sophomore at Sobrato High School at the time of her disappearance.
Garcia Torres was arrested in May 2012 for allegedly kidnapping and killing Sierra. Months later, prosecutors charged him for his alleged involvement in the 2009 Safeway incidents.
He has remained in custody at Santa Clara County Jail, with no bail, since his arrest.
Though investigators found some of Sierra’s belongings discarded near her neighborhood in the initial days after her disappearance, no further sign of her whereabouts has been discovered, according to authorities.
A group of volunteers still meets every Saturday in Morgan Hill to search for the missing teen or any evidence of what happened to her. The volunteers meet at the former site Central High School, 17960 Monterey Road.
For more information about the volunteer search effort, go to findsierralamar.com.
