Feb 16, 2007 2:59 am US/Pacific
Mario Garcia Tells CBS13 His Side Of The Story
Maintains His Innocence; Claims Jail Guards Kept Him Awake Before He Testified During Trial
by Tony Lopez
(CBS13)
The man convicted of killing Christie Wilson, if his sentence holds, will likely die in prison.
For the first time, he wants to tell what he says is his story. From behind bars Mario Garcia speaks exclusively to CBS13 News.
"I am very sorry that Christie Wilson is missing but I don't know where she's at. I don't have the answers for where she went. I just find myself being in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Garcia.
And now he's doing time for a murder Mario Garcia has always said he didn't commit.
In an exclusive cbs interview 48 Hours puts it to him point blank, the question we'd all like to ask, did he kill Christie Wilson?
"No I had nothing to do with her disappearance," said Garcia.
Garcia has maintained his innocence all along, but all along he couldn't explain how Christie Wilson's DNA got inside his car:
"I cannot explain how the hair got there. I do not have an explanation for how the DNA got there, but I know Christie Wilson was not in my car," said Garcia.
She was by his side, though. That October night in 2005 inside the Thunder Valley Casino they met for the first time as they gambled. Witnesses say the two shared a bottle of wine and a kiss.
He admits to giving her some gambling money, then in this now infamous piece of surveillance video the two walked out the front doors together. Christie would never be seen again.
Mario Garcia claims he simply said goodbye to her.
"I went home and I went to sleep. I got up a couple of hours later, I took a shower. I got dressed, I woke up my kids," said Garcia.
Months later those same kids would see him in court charged with Christie Wilson's murder.
Even though the 28-year-old's body was never found, the Placer county DA.'s office went after a murder conviction.
The jury was not allowed to hear about Garcia's past which includes allegations of abusing former girlfriends, one accused him of putting a gun in her mouth and pulling the trigger but it didn't go off.
"I know that I had stormy relationships with those three women," said Garcia.
Feeling lucky about beating a largely circumstantial case, Garcia's lawyers didn't hesitate to put him on the stand.
When asked if he wanted to take the stand, Garcia said, "Yes, very much."
When asked how he thought he did, he said, "I did not do very well."
He says there's a good reason for his poor performance; jailhouse guards, he claims, were ordered to wake him up several times on the mornings he was scheduled to take the stand in his own defense.
"On the days that I was going to testify I was awakened at 12:30 or 1:00 to take a shower and shave. I was awakened again at 3:15 to take my pills. I was awakened again at 4:30 to have breakfast. I was awakened again at 6:30 for head count. They did not let me sleep. It was on purpose," said Garcia.
The jury didn't buy what Garcia had to say on the witness stand. What he's saying tonight is sure to throw salt in the wound for a family who will never fully heal from their loss:
"My trial and my conviction still gets us nowhere. We still don't know where Christie Wilson is. I want them to continue searching," said Garcia.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
