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Lori Vargas wept Friday as she recalled bidding a heart-wrenching farewell to her eldest son through a glass window as his coffin went into a crematorium.

“His body was burned so badly, we were told it was too emotional for us to see him,” she told Judge Kevin O’Connell before he sentenced Ernesto Esquivel-Garcia to life in prison for the brutal 2018 killing of Jared Vargas, 20.

His father, Gene Vargas, told the packed gallery in the 227th state District Court that Father’s Day weekend will always be “a nightmare” for him because that’s when the convicted killer, an undocumented Mexican immigrant on orders to leave the country, robbed him of his son.

“We had plans,” Gene Vargas said. “I kept calling him to see if we could have breakfast or lunch because he worked all the time.”

Esquivel-Garcia, 21, was convicted of murder Aug. 13 in the death of Vargas, a Northwest Vista College student who had planned to study cybersecurity at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

On ExpressNews.com: Undocumented immigrant on trial, accused in killing Northwest Vista student, burning body

Vargas was last seen after he left work at Bowl & Barrel at The Rim, where the two men briefly worked together. Three days later, on June 18, 2018, firefighters found Vargas’ body while extinguishing a blaze at Esquivel-Garcia’s apartment in the 7900 block of Jones Maltzberger.

Testimony at Esquivel-Garcia’s trial established that he called Vargas to his apartment with the intent of robbing him, and that he changed the story he told police some 20 times before saying he killed Vargas in self-defense because he thought the student was going to sexually assault him.

Prosecutors said Esquivel-Garcia strangled Vargas with a charging cable, then stabbed him.

Vargas was left bleeding in the closet of the apartment for two days before he died, prosecutor Brandon Ramsey told the judge.

“During those two days, he took (Jared’s) car, his phone, his worldly possessions, and drove the vehicle, making it his own,” Ramsey said. “After that, he walked to a gas station and bought gas, poured it over his (Vargas’) body and set him on fire, in his words, to get rid of the evidence.”

George Shaffer, Esquivel-Garcia’s attorney, told the court the murder was “senseless,” and that no sentence would give any relief to Vargas’ family. Still, he implored O’Connell to render a sentence that would afford his client the opportunity to be a father to a daughter he has never been able to see or hold.

On ExpressNews.com: Undocumented immigrant found guilty in killing of San Antonio college student

After sentencing, family members wearing white “Justice for Jared” T-shirts, addressed Esquivel-Garcia. The convicted killer, who in previous court appearances had shown no remorse, appeared to weep silently on Friday as faced his victim’s loved ones and listened to an interpreter through a headset.

“My life sentence is a hole in my heart,” Lori Vargas told Esquivel-Garcia. “You have a daughter. I’ll never have a grandchild from Jared.”

Gene Vargas told Esquivel-Garcia that in addition to destroying his family, the convicted killer did the same to his own.

“I am at a point that God must deal with you,” he said of his struggle to reach a state of forgiveness. “Just as you left Jared in a closet, you are going to spend the rest of your life in a closet.”

Esquivel-Garcia will have to serve 30 years in prison before he would be eligible for parole. Family vowed to fight those opportunities every time they come up.

“It has been an emotional rollercoaster,” Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said after the sentencing.

He said Esquivel-Garcia would remain on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold while in prison and would face deportation if he was ever granted parole.

Esquivel-Garcia committed the killing weeks after he was ordered to leave the country. Immigration authorities had initiated removal proceedings against him in 2017. On May 29, 2018, he was ordered to leave the United States by July 20 of that year. About a month before the deadline, he killed Vargas.

Elizabeth Zavala covers county and state courts in San Antonio. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863