Dave Navarro Mom’s Killer Will Be Staying In Prison

Dave Navarro, the famous guitarist who has played with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane’s Addiction, got a bit of welcome news on July 4.

In 1983, John Riccardi killed Dave’s mother Connie Navarro and her friend Sue Jory at a West Los Angeles condominium. He’s been seeking a reduction on his life sentence since that time, but the 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld his sentence on Independence Day.

According to Billboard, Riccardi was originally sentenced to death for the murders, but the California Supreme Court overturned the sentence two years ago. Riccardi was sentenced again in 2013 to life without parole.

The Murders

On March 3, 1983, Dave Navarro was a 15-year-old boy staying at his father’s house. That’s when Riccardi, Connie’s jealous ex-boyfriend, broke into her apartment, shot her and her friend, and stuffed Connie’s body halfway into a linen closet, notes FeelNumb.com.

Prosecutors also noted that Riccardi once handcuffed a 13-year-old Dave to a toilet “and stalked Connie constantly,” the site notes. Navarro has said he would have been Riccardi’s third victim if he had been there that night.

“So I really do believe that that’s some sort of divine intervention that I can’t explain,” he said.

Addiction And Arrest

After the murders, Dave Navarro moved in with his father and became addicted to drugs and alcohol. He was later diagnosed with depression, FeelNumb notes.

Riccardi was apprehended in Houston, Texas, almost eight years after the murder when America’s Most Wanted aired an episode on the tragedy.

Navarro said he would “never forget” the day Riccardi was captured, nor the trial to follow.

“I had to face the killer in court last year,” he told Spin magazine in 1999. “I had to take the stand as a witness, and to the left of me were pictures from the crime scene on a f***ing board. I had to ask for them to be covered.”

Fortunately, Connie’s killer will not be seeing a release in this lifetime. The guitarist continues to memorialize her with a tattoo on his rib cage.

Kudos to the appellate court for getting this one right.

Low Profile

With this most recent news, searches are heating up once again for Dave Navarro. For his part, the musician has been keeping a low profile.

While still playing in Jane’s Addiction, he has also dabbled in acting, appearing on the last two episodes of season five of Sons of Anarchy, but that was in 2012.

[Image via txking / Shutterstock.com]