Los Angeles Times via Los Angeles County Sheriff
By msnbc.com staff
A convicted murderer awaiting trial in the Los Angeles County jail system had family cash $30,000 in unemployment checks, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Anthony Garcia’s father and two girlfriends reportedly cashed those checks, $1,600 a month, and also deposited money in his jail account and that of other gang members.
His father, Juan Garcia, 47, and girlfriends, Sandra Jaimez, 45, and Cynthia Limas, 25, were charged with unemployment fraud, the Times reported.
The investigation into the benefits fraud lasted a year and a half, from October 2008 to March 2010. It is illegal to receive unemployment benefits while in jail, according to California's Employment Development Department, but it is unclear whether Garcia could be convicted of a fraud-related crime as the money was deposited into his account.
Garcia was charged with the murder because he had a detailed murder scene inked on his chest. A detective investigating a 2004 murder case was looking through snapshots of tattooed gang members – who are photographed with their shirts off so that police may catalogue their tattoos – when he came across Garcia's tattoos. Garcia had been photographed after being picked up for a traffic stop.
Garcia’s tattoo spans his chest and bears the words, “RIVERA KILLS” above a liquor store lined with Christmas lights. There, John Juarez, 23, was gunned down. Rivera is a reference to the gang, Rivera-13.
Garcia was booked, and sheriff’s detectives disguised as gang members coaxed a confession out of Garcia in his cell.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News
