No Parole for Man Who Murdered Young Mother in Remote San Juan Capistrano

Parole was denied Thursday for Gilbert Lovato, the man convicted in the rape and shooting death of a young mother, whom he killed in a remote area of San Juan Capistrano—in front of her 2-year-old son.

Lovato, 53, is an inmate at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, where he'll remain until his next parole hearing, in 2018.

He was sentenced in May 1981 to life in state prison in the execution-style murder of Maria Padilla, 22.

According to prosecutors, Lovato kidnapped Padilla and her son the night of Dec. 17, 1976, from their van while she ran an errand to the bank.

He drove them to an isolated location in San Juan Capistrano. He raped Padilla and then shot her in the head while her son watched, according to the Orange County district attorney's office.

Lovato left the half-naked corpse and the boy on the side of the road. For the next two days, Padilla's son slept on her body and wandered the highway until he and his mother's body were found, according to the D.A.

After the kidnapping, rape and murder of Padilla—which the D.A. says Lovato continues to deny—Lovato fled to his hometown in New Mexico in Padilla's stolen van.

On Dec. 27, 1976, Santa Fe police received a request by the Orange County Sheriff's Department to help locate the van. When Lovato realized he was spotted by patrol officers, he led police on a high-speed pursuit. 

He fired three shots at police using the same gun used to murder Padilla. The pursuit ended at a restaurant, where Lovato held the patrons hostage and fired his gun at the ceiling. He surrendered after SWAT officers arrived.

A few days before murdering Padilla, Lovato, then 18 years old, stole two motorcycles from Draco's Motorcycle Shop in Santa Ana, robbed a storekeeper at a Santa Ana doughnut shop using a sawed-off shotgun and kidnapped a 25-year-old woman at knifepoint.

Since his incarceration, Lovato has continued to be violent and show a complete disrespect for the rules by accruing 25 prison rules violations, the D.A.'s office wrote in a press release.

While admitted in Las Vegas State Mental Hospital in 1977, Lovato escaped and fled to California and was later apprehended. Four years later, while in custody in Orange County, the inmate actively participated in a violent sexual attack of a jail inmate.

Two weeks later, on April 20, 1981, Lovato was one of the five inmates who took an active part in the attack and attempted murder of jail inmate Dwayne McKinney.

In 1987, he struck a correctional officer, injuring the officer's face and hand ligaments.