Sex, drugs, alcohol, and an alleged confession, it’s all part of Thursday's testimony in Douglas County District Court in the case against Anthony Garcia.
A former Indiana stripper, Cecelia Hoffman, tells the jury that she knew Garcia and called him “Doctor Tony” in 2012 and 2013. She says he was a regular at her club while he worked at an Illinois prison.
Garcia is accused of killing Thomas Hunter and Shirlee Sherman in 2008, and Dr. Roger and Mary Brumback in 2013 as revenge for being fired from the Creighton Pathology Department.
A pivotal point to connecting Garcia to the Dundee murders is an alleged conversation Garcia had with Hoffman at the strip club. Hoffman says she told him she only dates bad boys.
"He said ‘well I'm not that good I've killed people before.’ He goes ‘well it was an old woman and a young boy,’" Hoffman described. ’’Well maybe they didn't deserve it but I had to and I feel bad.’"
Hoffman thought Garcia was joking and didn't tell police until she was interviewed by OPD.
The defense had Hoffman admit that she was an alcoholic and had done drugs around the time she knew Garcia. She said she didn't even remember what month the conversation about the murders happened.
During an interview with the defense's investigator, Hoffman reportedly recanted her story.
“I told him maybe I was drunk, and maybe I don't remember," Hoffman explained.
Emotionally, Hoffman told prosecutors that she was telling the truth and that she isn't receiving anything for testifying against Garcia. Hoffman started crying when talking about how she felt intimidated by the defense's investigator.
Garcia’s defense attorney, Bob Motta Jr., asked why she was more intimidated by an investigator asking her questions than a man who allegedly told her he killed people.
“When some pervert in a strip club told me a joke it didn’t scare me,” Hoffman noted.
Prosecutors also documented how Garcia purchased a Smith and Wesson 9mm handgun on March 8, 2013 from Gander Mountain in Terre Haute, IN. A Regions Bank representative testified about how Garcia made ATM withdrawals in Shreveport, LA around the time of the 2008 Dundee murders.
The jury also got to see Garcia purchase beer at a Casey’s Gas Station in Council Bluffs hours before prosecutors believe the Brumbacks were murdered on May 12, 2013. They also used a timeline of credit card purchases to show how Garcia went from Des Moines to Omaha and back to Indiana from May 12 – 14, 2013.
Finally Thursday, cell phone records indicate that Garcia didn’t make or receive a call from May 10, 2013 until May 12 at 5:18pm when he was near Atlantic, IA.
