Julio Blanco Garcia sentenced to 49 years for murder of Vanessa Pham
A Fairfax County jury on Thursday convicted a former day laborer of first-degree murder in the 2010 death of 19-year-old Vanessa Pham, a college student who was home for the summer when she was killed by a stranger she had met in a parking lot.
Vanessa Pham
Julio Blanco Garcia, age 27, stabbed Pham as she gave him and his year-old daughter a ride from a Falls Church shopping center June 27, 2010.
Garcia, who did not know the young woman, had asked her to take him to a hospital.
On Thursday night, the jury sentenced Blanco Garcia to 49 years in prison — 30 years plus the 19 years of Pham’s life.
Blanco Garcia’s attorneys said their client was sick and hallucinating from smoking too much PCP, and was worried about his daughter’s safety when Pham made the wrong turn. Blanco Garcia “flipped out,” they said. They called it a “perfect storm of tragedy.”
The medical examiner testified Pham suffered 13 stab wounds, including two in the chest that caused her death. He said Pham would not have died immediately from her wounds and likely tried to fight off her attacker, since she had defensive wounds on her hands.
Pham, who wanted to be a fashion designer, had just finished her first year at Savannah College of Art and Design. She had happily told friends that she had been offered a summer job as a nanny. The defendant himself said she had a “good heart” for giving him a ride.
As the verdict was read, Pham’s family and friends held one another, and some cried. Blanco Garcia looked down, as he had for the entire trial, registering no emotion.
