A jury last Friday convicted 49-year-old Santa Maria drifter Gabriel Jose Zepeda of first-degree murder in the 2022 killing of a Santa Barbara homeless woman who authorities described as “quiet, polite, and someone who kept to herself.”
The trial lasted five weeks with the jury deliberating for less than a day before returning its guilty verdict. Zepeda faces life in prison without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced on June 16.
Zepeda was out on bail and wearing an ankle monitor so he could visit his ailing grandmother when he strangled 51-year-old Theresa Ann Carina to death near Stearns Wharf. Immediately afterward he told fishermen that he had “just robbed a lady.” Early morning passersby found Carina in a parking lot with her feet and hands bound and reported their grim discovery to police…