SAN JOSE — Family and friends of a beloved East San Jose elementary school teacher brutally killed by her son six years ago excoriated the convicted murderer at his scheduled sentencing Monday, but will have to wait another month to see his formal punishment after he was a no-show in court.
Ryan Garner, 41, refused to be transported to the Hall of Justice, and his formal sentencing for first-degree murder was postponed to Jan. 12. But loved ones of his mother, 57-year-old Cynthia Mykkanen, were allowed to express to Superior Court Judge Hanley Chew their pain over the loss of a devoted educator, sister and friend.
They also detailed their continuing heartbreak over how the death occurred at the hands of Garner, who had previously been convicted of assaulting his diminutive mother. They decried how after the fatal July 2019 attack — during which police say Mykkanen’s head was repeatedly slammed into a wall — Garner dropped off a gravely injured Mykkanen at an emergency room, gave a rambling alibi about how a nonexistent boyfriend hurt her, and then drove off in her pickup truck.
“The thing that continues to replay the most in my heart and mind and soul (is) how utterly defenseless she was, how small and light … and how Ryan was a strong, stocky male, 35 years old. With only one punch, he could have sent her flying across a room,” Sandra Mickanen, Mykkanen’s sister-in-law, wrote in prepared remarks that were read aloud by a friend. “He brutally and sadistically beat her continually, throughout her entire body, and for an unfathomable amount of time. He tortured her to death.”
Garner was convicted in September by a jury that needed less than an hour to deliberate before returning a guilty verdict. He is expected to receive a sentence of 25 years to life in prison based on the conviction.
At the time of her death, Mykkanen, a Virginia native and San Jose State University alumna, was a well regarded teacher at Painter Elementary School in the Alum Rock Union School District, and also taught at Harry Slonaker Academy. In 2017, she was featured by The Mercury News for her work with the Youth Science Institute and its camps and field trips for grade-school children.
That was also the same year that Garner was arrested and convicted of assault and false imprisonment for violently attacking Mykkanen, including choking her and threatening to kill her. Garner pleaded no contest to the charges, was sentenced to time served, and was placed on three years of probation supervision, which was still active when he killed Mykkanen.
Mickanen lamented that outcome in her statement Monday.
“Ryan is a clear example of a sadistic criminal with a track record of violence which dictated that he should have never been released back into society,” she wrote.
According to San Jose police investigators, on the afternoon of July 18, 2019, officers were called to Regional Medical Center after a security guard told them that a man brought Mykkanen to the emergency room and claimed she had been beaten by her unnamed boyfriend, and that the man “appeared to be intoxicated” before driving away in a truck rented by his mother. Police would soon learn that Mykkanen did not have a boyfriend.
At the hospital, Mykkanen was unresponsive and exhibited visible injuries to her face and head, showed no signs of brain activity, and was placed on life support. She died four days later.
Investigators went to the San Jose apartment where Mykkanen lived with Garner and discovered a bloody crime scene and signs that the victim’s head had been slammed into a wall. A landscaper reported seeing Mykkanen try to leave her apartment before someone pulled her back inside.
Detectives obtained security video showing Garner carrying Mykkanen into the pickup truck. Garner was arrested later that night in South San Jose, and was initially booked on suspicion of attempted murder, a charge that was escalated after his mother died.
Tom Wilson, who described himself as a family friend of Mykkanen, lauded the work that resulted in the murder conviction and reminded the judge about how Garner “appeared to be disengaged during the entire trial, showing no remorse.”
“He can never be trusted to walk among the general population again,” Wilson said in court Monday. “He is the most despicable person I have ever set eyes on.”
