Couple Lured Man’s Ex Outside a Bar — Then Carried Out a Cold-Blooded Plan Fueled by Jealousy By KC Baker

A California couple found guilty of murdering the man’s ex-girlfriend has learned their fate.

On Sept. 5, Margarita Jimenez, 34, of Oxnard, and Jorge Garfia, 38, of Ventura, were convicted of first-degree murder in the 2024 killing of Yanelly Vargas, 35, according to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.

On Tuesday, Oct. 21, Jimenez was sentenced to 80 years-to-life in state prison. Garfias was sentenced to 25 years-to-life in state prison, District Attorney Erik Nasarenko announced in a statement.

Jealousy drove Jimenez to target Vargas after she found text messages between Vargas and Garfias, who used to date, prosecutors said during the trial, the Ventura County Star reports.

“You stole Yanelly’s life from us,” Sonia Correa, one of Vargas’s loved ones, told the couple during their sentencing, the Ventura County Star reports. “You took a mother, friend, sister and woman of strength and compassion, leaving a void that will never be filled.”

The crime unfolded just before midnight on March 17, 2024, when Oxnard police responded to a call about a fight between a man and woman outside a business near East Wooley Road and Industrial Avenue. 

During the 911 call, a gunshot rang out.

Arriving officers found Vargas unresponsive and suffering from a gunshot wound. 

She was rushed to Ventura County Medical Center, where she later died. 

In their investigation, detectives learned that Garfias, Vargas’s ex-boyfriend, sent her a text message luring her to the outside of a bar, the district attorney said in the statement.

Garfias and Jimenez, his new girlfriend, drove Vargas to an alley in an industrial area nearby before they began beating her.

Vargas tried to flee, but Garfias and Jimenez followed her in Garfias’s truck.

Jimenez was captured on surveillance footage exiting the truck and running after Vargas with a handgun. 

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Jimenez shot Vargas once in the chest and attempted to shoot a second time before fleeing the scene with Garfias in the truck, the statement said.

Later on at the scene, investigators found a blood trail, a 9mm shell casing, and acrylic nails that were later matched to Jimenez at the time of her arrest, according to the statement.

They also found a blood-stained yellow rope near Vargas’s body.

Vargas died from a gunshot wound to the chest and had suffered multiple blunt force injuries and signs of strangulation, according to the statement.

Jimenez and Garfias were arrested on April 3, 2024.

Jimenez and Garfias were found not guilty of kidnapping the victim. 

Deputy district attorney Hyla Schneir of the Domestic Violence Unit, who helped prosecute the case, said that she hopes the sentences give Vargas’s loved ones some comfort.

“Yanelly’s family and friends addressed the court and described their agony and how the defendants’ violent acts shattered their lives,” Schneir said in a statement. “While no sentence can undo the harm caused or bring Yanelly back, we hope the court’s decision to impose the maximum sentences provides a measure of justice and a sense of closure as they continue to grieve and heal.”

Attorneys for the perpetrators did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.