A 37-year-old transient was sentenced Friday to 30 years to life in prison by an Orange County Superior Court judge who said if he could he would have punished the defendant even more for killing a homeless woman and then decapitating her and burying her in the backyard of his family’s home in Huntington Beach.
Antonio Padilla was convicted Feb. 18 of second-degree murder in the June 30, 2022, killing of 60-year-old Regina “Gina” Marie Lockhart.
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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.”…