Gabriel Campos-Martinez sentenced in Hollywood severed head case
LOS ANGELES -- A 38-year-old man convicted of murdering his live-in boyfriend, dismembering him and dumping his severed head, hands and feet near the Hollywood sign has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Gabriel Campos-Martinez was found guilty of first-degree murder on Oct. 1 in connection to the murder of 66-year-old Hervey Medellin, who he had been dating and living with.
On Monday, a judge sentenced Campos-Martinez to spend the next 25 years to possibly the rest of his life in prison.
Prosecutors said Campos-Martinez strangled then dismembered Medellin with a saw in December 2011. The body parts were refrigerated before being bagged and buried near the Bronson Canyon Trail in Griffith Park.
Two women walking their dogs at the park discovered Medellin's head in a plastic bag on Jan. 17, 2012. Police later located Medellin's hands and feet.
Not long after the gruesome discovery, Campos-Martinez moved to San Antonio, Texas.
During the investigation, officials seized a laptop from the couple's apartment. Deputy District Attorney Bobby Grace said jurors believed beyond a reasonable doubt it was Campos-Martinez who searched the Internet for how to "Butcher a Human Carcass for Human Consumption" the day after Medellin was last seen alive.
The tools used to dismember Medellin, a retired Mexicana Airlines employee, and his torso were never found. But in late September, the medical examiner finally received confirmation that human tissue in a bag discovered in 2014, not far from the other body parts, was Medellin's.
