Antolin Garcia-Torres Tied to 2009 Assault: Sheriff

Authorities are not saying how Sierra Lamar suspect was connected to previous assaults.

The man being held for the disappearance of a missing 15-year-old named Sierra LaMar is also linked to at least one 2009 assault in Morgan Hill, authorities revealed Tuesday.

Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said Antolin Garcia-Torres, who is being held in connection with the disappearance of LaMar, may be connected with at least one of three other 2009 assaults involving a Taser in a Morgan Hill Safeway parking lot.

Smith did not say which of the three assaults Garcia-Torres is allegedly connected with or how he is connected.

Instead she said Garcia-Torres has talked a little to detectives and she wishes he would be more forthcoming.

Detectives learned that Garcia-Torres was connected to LaMar on March 28, when his DNA was found on her clothes and belongings, found two miles near the bus stop where she had last been headed, according to Smith.

Garcia-Torres' DNA match came back from the lab on Monday, and he was arrested shortly afterward.

His DNA was in the system because of a 2009 felony assault, for which he was arrested, but never prosecuted for reasons unclear.

In 2009 there were three high profile assaults that allegedly took place in a Safeway parking lot 840 E. Dunne Ave.

In each of the cases, a man described to be in his late 20s or early 30s, standing at about 5 feet 10 inches tall, and weighing about 200 pounds, was said to have attacked three women in their cars.

In two of the cases, the suspect, who was never caught, allegedly entered the womens' car from the rear driver-side door of their cars.

In at least one of the instances a woman said her attacker used a Tazer gun to stun her. At the time authorities said they believed the attacker was the same in all three cases.

Garcia-Torres was not named as a suspect in those cases back then and he has still not be formally charged with being involved in those alleged assaults now.

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