Deaths of 2 women are linked to Garcia

Convicted murderer Mario Garcia, who is facing 50-years-to-life in prison for killing 27-year-old Christie Wilson last year may have been responsible for two other deaths more than 25 years ago.On Dec. 24, 1979 Garcia and his then-girlfriend Lynette Smith and her mother Violet Davis had gone to dinner in San Francisco and were headed home when the car they were in ended up in the Oakland Estuary, where the ocean meets a river.Smith and Davis drowned. Garcia survived.John Cave, now retired from the Oakland Police Department, investigated the women's deaths. He said in a telephone interview that he believes Garcia was driving that fatal night."They were out on Christmas night and somehow ended up on Doolittle Drive in the city of Oakland and drove off into the estuary," Cave said. "The two women in the car died and Mario survived."Cave said authorities could not prove who was driving the car, and Garcia was never charged in connection with the case."We had a suspicion who the driver was but we could never prove it," Cave said. "Mario was swimming in the estuary when the rescuers arrived."Garcia, when questioned, denied he was driving.The body of Violet Davis was found in the back seat and Smith's body surfaced more than a week later, according to police records obtained by the Journal.Several witnesses reported passing the car, a 1979 AMC Concord, but none were able to describe the driver.According to records from the Oakland Police Department, officers arrived at the scene as Garcia was swimming to shore. "Garcia staggered and was incoherent on exiting the water," the records sate. "After coaxing and questioning Garcia, (officers) finally learned from him that there were other people in the vehicle."In a written statement from Garcia dated Dec. 25, 1979 he told officers that Lynette was driving the car and the he was in the passenger seat."As we were leaving the (Jack London) square, I fell asleep," Garcia's statement reads.He said he heard screaming coming from the back seat as the car plunged into the Oakland Estuary."I was able to climb out through the side window," Garcia reported. "I took a deep breath and dived back under the water, trying to get to the car, but couldn't."He reported that he tried to save Lynette Smith.Davis' body was located that same night. Smith's body surfaced weeks later.The drowning incident occurred less than a year after he allegedly raped Wendy Ward in Alameda.She said in an interview with the Journal that Garcia raped her on Jan. 12, 1979 in Alameda County.At the time the Alameda County District Attorney's Office recommended that Garcia be charged with one count of kidnapping, two counts of forcible rape, one count of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of burglary. But when it was all said and done he pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon.A jury convicted Garcia, 54, of Auburn, Nov. 21 of first-degree murder in the 2005 death Wilson. That conviction alone was worth 25-to-life. But Judge Larry D. Gaddis ruled Tuesday that the prior assault charge will count as a strike, doubling the lower term of the sentence to 50 years. Garcia remains in custody at Placer County Jail on $3 million bail and is scheduled to be sentenced at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 11, 2007in an Auburn Courtroom.The Journal's Penne Usher can be reached at penneu@goldcountrymedia.com.