Sentencing was postponed Monday for a 54-year-old Redondo Beach woman convicted of beating her elderly and disabled mother to death in Long Beach in 2003 and then setting fire to the corpse and house to cover up the crime.
Valeria Garnett was convicted last month of second-degree murder and arson for the slaying of her mother -- Margaret Garnett -- whose scorched remains were found in her fire-ravaged North Long Beach apartment nearly seven years ago.
Margaret Garnett, 69, died Jan. 17, 2003. Her body was discovered after firefighters were called to extinguish a blaze at her apartment in the 2900 block of East 70th Street. The victim's daughter told authorities the blaze was accidentally sparked by an errant cigarette. It was a claim she maintained at the time of her arrest nearly five years later in 2007. But after an extensive investigation, which included a recreation of the fire with a scale model of Margaret Garnett's home and an autopsy report that determined she was dead well before the flames ignited, police and prosecutors were able to prove Garnett killed her mother to avoid the burden of caring for the physically and mentally disabled woman, then torched her body and parts of the home in an attempt to cover up the crime.
Authorities began to suspect Valeria Garnett almost immediately due to her strange behavior and clues found at the scene, arson investigators said. "She had a very bland reaction to her mother's death," recalled now-retired Arson Investigator Richard Birdsall. "She never once asked about her mom's condition ... when we advised her (of the death) it was almost a shrug-of-the-shoulders kind of thing." It took about eight months for experts from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to come to their final determination, Birdsall said. Los Angeles County Coroner's investigators ruled the victim was dead before the fire began and that the cause of death appeared to be blunt-force trauma. Arson investigators also learned from other family members that Margaret Garnett had spent almost 20 years in a state facility due to mental health problems. About five years before her death, the victim was released from the state-run hospital and her daughter told the rest of the family that she would live with and care for her mom rather than have the family pay for a private convalescent home. Once Valeria Garnett moved in, she steadily began to isolate the victim from the rest of the family and friends, relatives told investigators. Family members told police and fire authorities they feared the suspect was subsidizing her own Social Security and state disability checks with her mother's funds, Birdsall said. The fire was deemed suspicious from the start, prompting Long Beach police and fire investigators to travel to a fire science lab in Baltimore to conduct a battery of tests, a first for local authorities. Several rooms of the victim's apartment were reconstructed, including specific details such as furniture and materials contained within the home, in the confines of the ATF's Fire Research Laboratory. Multiple tests were run, including the version of events related to authorities by the suspect, who was at home at the time of the fire. "We tried to start the fire in the manner which she claimed and there's no way it could happen," Birdsall said at the time of Garnett's arrest. "We have proven it could not have occurred ... and we'll prove it in court."
Police and prosecutors did just that, with a jury returning a guilty verdict on Dec. 1 for one count of second-degree murder and one count of arson, said Long Beach Fire Department Capt. Jackawa Jackson. The trial lasted roughly one month.
Garnett was scheduled to return to the Downtown Los Angeles court Jan. 4 for sentencing, but her sentencing was delayed until Feb. 1.
She faces a minimum of 15 years to life in prison, Jackson said.
Valeria Garnett was convicted last month of second-degree murder and arson for the slaying of her mother -- Margaret Garnett -- whose scorched remains were found in her fire-ravaged North Long Beach apartment nearly seven years ago.
Margaret Garnett, 69, died Jan. 17, 2003. Her body was discovered after firefighters were called to extinguish a blaze at her apartment in the 2900 block of East 70th Street. The victim's daughter told authorities the blaze was accidentally sparked by an errant cigarette. It was a claim she maintained at the time of her arrest nearly five years later in 2007. But after an extensive investigation, which included a recreation of the fire with a scale model of Margaret Garnett's home and an autopsy report that determined she was dead well before the flames ignited, police and prosecutors were able to prove Garnett killed her mother to avoid the burden of caring for the physically and mentally disabled woman, then torched her body and parts of the home in an attempt to cover up the crime.
Authorities began to suspect Valeria Garnett almost immediately due to her strange behavior and clues found at the scene, arson investigators said. "She had a very bland reaction to her mother's death," recalled now-retired Arson Investigator Richard Birdsall. "She never once asked about her mom's condition ... when we advised her (of the death) it was almost a shrug-of-the-shoulders kind of thing." It took about eight months for experts from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to come to their final determination, Birdsall said. Los Angeles County Coroner's investigators ruled the victim was dead before the fire began and that the cause of death appeared to be blunt-force trauma. Arson investigators also learned from other family members that Margaret Garnett had spent almost 20 years in a state facility due to mental health problems. About five years before her death, the victim was released from the state-run hospital and her daughter told the rest of the family that she would live with and care for her mom rather than have the family pay for a private convalescent home. Once Valeria Garnett moved in, she steadily began to isolate the victim from the rest of the family and friends, relatives told investigators. Family members told police and fire authorities they feared the suspect was subsidizing her own Social Security and state disability checks with her mother's funds, Birdsall said. The fire was deemed suspicious from the start, prompting Long Beach police and fire investigators to travel to a fire science lab in Baltimore to conduct a battery of tests, a first for local authorities. Several rooms of the victim's apartment were reconstructed, including specific details such as furniture and materials contained within the home, in the confines of the ATF's Fire Research Laboratory. Multiple tests were run, including the version of events related to authorities by the suspect, who was at home at the time of the fire. "We tried to start the fire in the manner which she claimed and there's no way it could happen," Birdsall said at the time of Garnett's arrest. "We have proven it could not have occurred ... and we'll prove it in court."
Police and prosecutors did just that, with a jury returning a guilty verdict on Dec. 1 for one count of second-degree murder and one count of arson, said Long Beach Fire Department Capt. Jackawa Jackson. The trial lasted roughly one month.
Garnett was scheduled to return to the Downtown Los Angeles court Jan. 4 for sentencing, but her sentencing was delayed until Feb. 1.
She faces a minimum of 15 years to life in prison, Jackson said.
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Wow. I have a very close friend who's wife is a judge here in Newport Beach and I can't imagine having to deal with people like this daily. I just don't understand what goes through someone's head? Very sad!