Man Who Decapitated Homeless Woman, Buried Her In OC Convicted

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — A 34-year-old man was convicted of second-degree murder Tuesday when he was found guilty of killing, decapitating and burying a 60-year-old homeless woman whose body was found weeks later in the backyard of his family's Huntington Beach home.

Antonio Padilla was found guilty of killing Gina Lockhart. Lockhart's headless body was found hog-tied and buried at a Huntington Beach mobile park in 2022, according to a previous Patch report.

According to The Orange County Register, Lockhart was well-known at shopping centers surrounding Beach Boulevard and Slater Avenue.

Padilla was also a transient and would sometimes flop at his parents' backyard shed for their double-wide trailer home at 7850 Slater Ave., near Beach Boulevard, Madera said.

Padilla's mother, Rosario Cendejas, began noticing a fetid odor around the shed on the July Fourth weekend, according to Madera. The defendant's sister, Lolita Guevara, who also lived in the family's mobile home, started sniffing the foul odor around July 7 or July 8, she added.

Padilla is scheduled to be sentenced April 11.