A California man is facing life in prison after admitting to killing and raping two women – a teenager and a young woman – and disposing of their bodies by dumping them next to freeways in Los Angeles in 2011.
Geovanni Borjas, 38, entered his no-contest pleas to two counts of capital murder and rape and one count of kidnapping.
Borjas finally accepted responsibility for the brutal murders and sexual assault of Michelle Lozano,17, and Bree’Anna Guzman, 22, which happened more than a decade ago in 2011.
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office released a statement saying that in addition to the previous charges, Borjas also admitted to special circumstance claims of several murders, murdering someone in the commission of a rape and kidnapping.
During a press briefing, George Gascon, the Los Angeles County District Attorney, said that the victims’ families had endured tremendous losses and their pain would never disappear. He said he was committed to seeing them receive the necessary services to help them move forward.
In pronouncing Borjas’s plea, Gascon said the suspect would likely get life in prison for his heinous crimes. He thanked the prosecutors and investigators for their hard work that led to the criminal facing justice.
Lozano disappeared on April 24, 2011, and police discovered her body a day later, on April 25, near Freeway 5 in the neighborhood of Boyle Heights. An autopsy on her body suggested Borjas had strangled her to death. He then wrapped her body in several plastic bags and put her inside a big plastic container before dumping her.
Guzman disappeared in late December 2011. Police discovered her body about a month later, on January 26, 2012, somewhere near the Glendale freeway.
Authorities determined that Borjas had sexually assaulted both Guzman and Lozano. Police recovered DNA samples from both crime scenes but could not get a match in both federal and state criminal records.
Although Lozano’s cause of death was determined to be strangulation, Guzman’s body had decomposed pretty severely by the time the police discovered it, and the coroner’s office could only determine that she sustained unspecified neck trauma.
When investigators couldn’t find a DNA match in any database, they decided to use a controversial yet effective technique for identifying DNA called Familial DNA testing. Familial DNA allows investigators to test available DNA and run it in their criminal database to find likely relatives of the suspect.
Charlie Beck, Los Angeles Police Department Chief, said that the familial DNA test led them to Borjas’ father, who was on record for a previous crime.
Chief Beck said that detectives then started following Borjas around, hoping to get a DNA sample from him. Detectives got lucky when he spat on the pavement. They tested his spit against the samples found on the two young women, and he was a match.
Police arrested Borjas in 2017, and he initially pled not guilty to the charges until October 31, 2022, when he finally admitted to the crimes, five years after his arrest.
Borjas faces life imprisonment without parole, and his next court appearance will be on December 12, when he will receive his sentence.
