A 37-year-old man suffocated or strangled a homeless woman, then decapitated and buried her in the backyard of his family’s home in Huntington Beach, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday, while the defendant’s attorney said the cause of death was undetermined and indicated his client’s father’s actions were suspicious.
Antonio Padilla is charged with murder in the June 30, 2022, killing of 60-year-old Regina “Gina” Marie Lockhart.
Lockhart was a “well-known transient” in the city, Senior Deputy District Attorney Janine Madera told jurors in her opening statement of Padilla’s trial.
“She frequented Beach Boulevard and Slater Avenue,” Madera added. “She was a veritable fixture.”
Lockhart was also an alcoholic who visited the local emergency room multiple times before her death, Madera said. She sought treatment for alcohol poisoning and injuries from falls, she added.
Lockhart was in “regular phone contact” with her mother, Donna Ashbaugh, Madera said. She had a boyfriend, Rick Bernhardt, who was also homeless, the prosecutor added.
Lockhart was last seen on surveillance video at about 9 a.m. the day of her death at Primo Liquor, at a Walgreens and a Chevron station, Madera said.
Emilia Martinez Jaramillo, who worked in a taco food truck, saw Lockhart at about 4:30 p.m. that day, Madera said. Lockhart appeared to be in distress, so Jaramillo “asked her if she needed any help and the victim kept walking” away, Madera said.
Padilla was also a transient and would sometimes flop at his parents’ backyard shed at 7850 Slater Ave., Madera said.
Padilla’s mother, Rosario Cendejas, began noticing a fetid odor around the shed on the July Fourth weekend, according to Madera. The defendant’s sister, Lolita Guevara, who also lived in the family’s mobile home, started sniffing the foul odor around July 7 or July 8, she added.
She also noticed about that time that her brother had shaved his head, Madera said.
On July 10, she saw him digging a hole in the backyard and also heard “loud noises” in the metal shed, Madera said. The defendant was attempting to fill the hole with concrete and the smell worsened, Madera said.
When Padilla’s mother questioned him about maggot-infested bloody blankets he was holding he “threatened her,” prompting Cendejas to call 911, Madera said.
When officers responded and checked the backyard they told Padilla’s mother and sister the source of the foul smell was probably a dead animal and advised them to clean the shed.
Cendejas went to work on cleaning the shed, using bleach on the ground that wiped out some forensic evidence, but investigators were later able to recover the victim’s DNA on it, Madera said. The defendant’s mother also found a patch of scalp with hair that was from the victim, Madera said.
Cendejas also found some old Vans shoes missing laces, the prosecutor said. She again called police on July 16 and when she told officers about her son’s digging they began investigating and “unearthed the body,” Madera said.
Lockhart was hog-tied with the shoe laces “and she had been decapitated,” Madera said. “Her head was found underneath her body.”
Investigators found a knife in the shed that had the DNA of the defendant and the victim, Madera said. The decapitation was a “clean cut,” meaning the head was slashed off without “hesitation,” Madera said.
Investigators believe the victim was decapitated and hog-tied after she had died, Madera said.
The pathologist who examined the body “ruled out” natural causes for the death such as liver disease and other maladies associated with alcoholism, Madera said. The pathologist could not rule out suffocation or strangulation as possible causes of death, she added.
The beheading made it difficult for the experts to determine if the victim had been choked to death, Madera said.
When police questioned Padilla he was dishonest and “tried to distance himself from the shed,” and “denied smelling any odor” and “denied talking to his mother about the odor,” Madera said.
The defendant’s sister, Lolita Guevara, last year told investigators she recalled hearing “screaming” from someone with a “raspy voice” before the awful smell surfaced, Madera said.
“The sound was quickly muffled,” Madera said. “She was so upset she circled the date on her calendar and told her husband about it.” But she didn’t tell investigators about it when the body was found, Madera said.
On March 12, 2024, the defendant posted crime scene photos of the victim’s head and decapitated body on his jail cell “as a trophy,” Madera alleged.
Defense attorney Daniel Kim of the Orange County Public Defender’s Office told jurors, “This is a tough case” that will be “disturbing and difficult to process.”
After hearing all the evidence, jurors will be left with a “lingering question — how did Ms. Lockhart die?” Kim said.
Dr. Aruna Singhania of the Orange County Coroner’s Office listed the cause of death as “undetermined,” Kim said.
“She noted no signs of struggle, no signs of external trauma” on the body, Kim said.
Lockhart’s “health was deteriorating,” Kim said.
In one of her hospital visits prior to her death she suffered seizures for two minutes and had to be stabilized with medication before her release, Kim said. She sought aid for alcohol poisoning and overdose on June 24, 2022, Kim said.
Lockhart was back to the ER again on June 25 and June 26, 2022, Kim said.
In the last surveillance video to capture footage of the victim she was seen toting two liters of vodka, Kim said. When the food truck employee saw her the victim was clutching her stomach in pain, Kim added.
When officers came out to investigate the calls to 911 about Padilla they saw the defendant’s father, Mario Padilla, in the shed moving things around, Kim said. Mario Padilla was seen removing boxes from the shed on July 11, 2022, Kim alleged.
The metal shed was Mario Padilla’s “man cave,” with two TVs and a chair for him, Kim said.
“He is the primary occupant of the shed,” Kim said.
Antonio Padilla, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, occasionally would sleep in the shed, Kim said.
Mario Padilla also planted a tomato tree on top of where the body was found, Kim said.