A 62-year-old Rancho Santa Margarita man who strangled a former co-worker during an argument at the victim’s Lake Forest home and then dumped her body in Santa Ana was sentenced Friday, Dec. 6 to 15 years to life in prison.
Jose Valdez Jimenez was convicted earlier this year of second-degree murder for the Oct. 22, 2020 slaying of 57-year-old Natalia Gamino Jaimes. After killing Jaimes in her own garage, Jimenez left her body in a car in Santa Ana and then fled for Mexico.
Jimenez and Jaimes first met while both were working as janitors, according to testimony during the trial, and kept in touch after moving on to other jobs. But Jaimes was apparently angered when her daughter went to get her son at school and learned that Jimenez had already picked the boy up.
Jimenez went to Jaimes townhome and told her it was a “misunderstanding,” according to trial testimony. The last time Jaimes’ daughter saw her mother alive was in the garage with Jimenez. The daughter returned home from the gym to find the garage door open and her mother missing.
The daughter kept calling her mother’s cell phone until a man answered and told her that he had found the phone in Santa Ana. On Oct. 24, Jimenez cleared out a room he was renting in Rancho Santa Margarita and asked a friend to drive him to the Mexican border.
Jaimes’ daughter hired a private investigator, who spotted Jaimes’ car while putting up missing person posters in Santa Ana. Police found Jaimes body inside the car.
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Surveillance footage showed a man covering his face with a shirt as he parked the car, according to trial testimony. But, based on the suspect’s clothes and his gait, Jaimes’ daughter identified him as Jimenez.
Jimenez told detectives that Jaimes had “made him feel useless,” and had previously “assaulted him” and “made him feel ashamed,” according to trial testimony.
Jimenez told detectives that he had choked Jaimes for 10 minutes in the garage. Based on forensic evidence, detectives believe that Jaimes had fought for her life.
Jimenez ultimately agreed to surrender to detectives at the border, and was taken into custody.
During the trial, the defense attorney acknowledged that Jimenez killed Jaimes, but argued it wasn’t a premeditated or planned murder.
Jaimes had taken advantage of Jimenez financially and was exploiting his romantic feelings for her, the defense attorney told jurors. When Jimenez showed up at Jaimes’ home, she told him, “I was using you,” the lawyer added.
City News Service contributed to this report.
