Feds: Man Gave Tainted Yogurt To Several Women

FEBRUARY 2--The New Mexico supermarket worker who admitted putting his semen in yogurt ingested by a female shopper provided similarly tainted samples to at least four other women, according to prosecutors who have asked a judge to depart from federal guidelines so that the man can be sentenced to a lengthier prison term for his “perverted conduct.”

In a motion filed last week in U.S. District Court, Department of Justice lawyers argued that Anthony Garcia would not be adequately punished if a judge followed federal sentencing guidelines. Garcia, 32, has a “low criminal history” score that that puts him in the “same category as first time offenders who have never had a single encounter with law enforcement authorities,” prosecutors reported.

Garcia has pleaded guilty to adulterating the yogurt and making false statements to investigators. While facing up to three years in prison on the first count and five years on the second charge, federal guidelines call for him to receive significantly less than the statutory maximums.

“Such categorization does not fairly reflect the far more disturbing portrait” of Garcia, prosecutors wrote in their January 25 motion for an “upward departure.” Pictured above, Garcia is scheduled to be sentenced on March 1.

In addition to the 29-year-old victim cited in Garcia’s indictment, at least four other women have told police that Garcia offered them suspect yogurt samples at the Sunflower Market in Albuquerque. Three of the women ingested the samples, which prosecutors believe were tainted with Garcia’s semen.

One woman said the yogurt “tasted funny” so she did not finish the sample. Another victim reported that the yogurt she ate was “gross.” A third woman reported that the yogurt “did not taste good and wanted to spit it out, but she could not find a trash can to do so.”

The fourth woman, who was approached by Garcia last January, told probers that he provided her with a yogurt sample and said she “had to try what was on the spoon first because that’s where the nutrients are.” But the woman declined to taste the sample after noticing that “the substance on the spoon was clear or white and the yogurt was pink.”

Referring to the woman referred to in Garcia’s indictment, prosecutors stated that he “tricked his victim into placing his semen into her mouth,” adding that the supermarket worker “wanted to be in a position to witness the victim consume his bodily fluid.”

The “upward departure” motion also refers to a series of disturbing incidents in Garcia’s criminal past, including instances in which he exposed himself at a Walmart, flashed a female jogger, and was spotted masturbating in a car. He is also facing a state charge of having criminal sexual contact with a child under age 13.

Federal prosecutors argue that Garcia has, to date, received such lenient punishment for his history of indecent exposure arrests that “the criminal justice system thus far has simply failed” to calibrate his “true dangerousness.” As a result, they added, an “upward departure” from federal sentencing guidelines would be an appropriate method to address his “deviant conduct.” (5 pages)