By Lookout Staff

December 6, 2010 -- A Santa Monica man who murdered his girlfriend by striking her with a hammer at least nine times will spend at least the next five decades in prison. Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Martin Herscovitz on Tuesday sentenced Adel Tabrizi Chapel, 25, to a term of 56 years to life. A jury had found him guilty last month of killing Denise Figueroa, 22, of North Hills.

Figueroa’s body was found in the trunk of her car last year following an anonymous tip to television station KTLA. Her mother had reported her daughter missing on Feb. 28 after she left her mother’s North Hills home and did not return. The fax stating there had been a murder and describing where the body could be found arrived less than a week later. The anonymous tipster was later revealed to be Chapel’s brother, who testified at the trial.

Following the information in the letter, authorities found Figueroa’s beaten body in the trunk of her Nissan Altima parked in Valley Village. When the body was found, Chapel was in custody for an unrelated car jacking incident and was under investigation for a series of violent crimes that took place in the San Fernando Valley.

Chapel was found guilty for carjacking and assault in May of this year. He will be sentenced in that case today at the Airport Courthouse.