FAIRFAX, Va. — A man who admitted to being high on PCP when he fatally stabbed a SCAD student while she gave him and his infant daughter a ride to a hospital has been convicted of first-degree murder.
A Fairfax County jury on Thursday night convicted 27-year-old Julio Blanco Garcia for the June 2010 slaying of Vanessa Pham of Falls Church, Va.
Pham was 19 when she was killed. She was heading into her sophomore year at the Savannah College of Art and Design and was home in Fairfax County on break when she died.
Pham was found dead in her car in a ditch. Blanco Garcia was arrested last year after police found DNA evidence linking him to the killing.
Prosecutors say Blanco Garcia planned to kill Pham, whom he stabbed 13 times.
The jury recommended a sentence of 49 years for Blanco Garcia. A judge will sentence him on Oct. 18.