Inside Alberto Garcia’s Trial

Facing sentencing for the 2014 murder of Ja’Naya Thompson, Alberto Garcia told a detective he ‘always tries to stay on the straight and narrow.’It could take as long as Thursday to decided Garcia’s sentencing.
Facing death or life without parole, Alberto Garcia entered into a courtroom packed with tears, anger, and unanswered questions as the quest for justice continues to unfold in the brutal sexual assault and murder of five-year-old Ja’Naya Thompson.
Ja’Naya’s cousin Angela Hinton said, “It was really hard for me to sit there, but I’m just here for my family.”
Garcia looked on as witnesses and authorities sifted through photos, capturing a crime scene the judge called obscene, as family, friends, and neighbors relived the nightmare that unfolded at the Gulfport trailer on July 16th, 2014 and the desperate search the night she went missing. Neighbor Renee Cuevas said, “The whole community, everybody joined in. You had cars, people from different apartments, and then she was found the next morning.”
Since the horrific tragedy a lot of remodeling has been done to the trailer where Ja’Naya was found, but the owner says that writing on the wall that looks like it’s been done with white crayon could very possibly be from her.
“I had got called earlier by a family member and told where she was found. It was like somebody has taken all the wind out of you,” said Hinton.
The trailer, vacant at the time Ja’Naya’s body was discovered there, is near Palm Apartments where both Garcia and the Thompson family lived. In court Monday, authorities said they found binoculars hidden by Garcia’s window, overlooking the playground where Ja’Naya played.
As the case comes to a close, her relatives focus on Ja’Naya’s short but memorable life. “She was just an ordinary little girl. Somebody who was very kind and gentle and sweet and could have been friends with anybody,” said Hinton.