Alejandro Avila was convicted of murdering a 5-year-old girl, Samantha Runnion, whom he kidnapped near her home in Stanton, California.
On the evening of July 15, 2002, Samantha was playing with her friend, Sarah Ahn, who was also five, near her apartment complex when a light green 1994 Ford Thunderbird drove by.
The car was seen turning around, then it pulled up next to them.
A man exited the vehicle and asked the girls if they had seen a puppy, specifically a Chihuahua.
When Samantha began asking questions about the dog, the man grabbed her and forced her into his vehicle as she kicked and screamed.
It was reported that Samantha had been taught to scream and yell for help if a stranger were to force her into their car.
As she sat in the car, Sarah testified that Samantha looked at her and screamed, “Help me! Tell my grandmother.”
Sarah obliged.
When they drove off, Sarah ran to back to Samantha’s apartment and told her grandmother that a man had taken her.
The police were notified, and a search for Samantha began.
Sarah provided law enforcement with a description of the kidnapper, which they used to create a composite sketch. It was released to the public thereafter.
She also told them the color of the vehicle he was driving.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Samantha was “laying on her back with her legs opened and tucked underneath her” as if she had been posed.
An autopsy showed that Samantha had been sexually assaulted and kept alive for several hours before she suffocated to death.
Police said it was likely she fought her attacker, as she had “injuries to her hands, arms, and possibly face.”
According to a pathologist, “she died as a result of mechanical asphyxiation through compression of the neck, with the blunt-force trauma to the head also significantly contributing to it.”
It wasn’t long before police officials had their eyes set on Avila. They had received several tips claiming that he resembled the composition sketch.
Avila was 27 years old at the time, and he worked as an assembler at the Temecula plant of Guidant Corp. He also lived with his mother in an apartment in the 32200 block of Riverside Drive in Lake Elsinore.
The apartment was several miles from where Samantha’s body was found.
On July 18, 2002, detectives obtained a warrant to search Avila’s apartment. While crime scene analysts were conducting the search, detectives took Avila to a hotel in Santa Ana, where they questioned him for 12 hours.
It was there that they learned his father was incarcerated for killing his neighbor and that his brother was murdered in Mexico by gang members.
They also ascertained that he had access to three light green vehicles.
The following morning, on July 19, 2002, police arrested Avila when DNA evidence found on Samantha’s body, including her fingernails, matched that of Avila.
After seizing his vehicle, investigators also found her tears on the passenger side door, which played a major role in his conviction.
He was booked into the county jail on charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and two counts of forcible lewd acts on a child under 14.
That wasn’t Avila’s first run-in with the law.
A year prior to his arrest, Avila was charged with molesting two 9-year-old girls and threatening to kill a woman. He admitted to tickling and kissing the girls, but he said it wasn’t in a sexual way.
Avila’s mother contended that the molestation charges were based on false allegations by his girlfriend.
She insisted he was innocent, saying, “I know my son, and I didn’t raise him to be like that. He’s not capable of that. He’s always good with kids.”
A Riverside County jury acquitted Avila of all charges.
Deputy District Attorney Paul Dickerson said, “I felt the guy was guilty and did everything in my power to get him convicted.”
It was reported that one of the girls who accused Avila of molestation lived at the same Stanton apartment complex as Samantha.
Neighbors told police that they remember seeing him there often.
During a phone interview, Avila denied having anything to do with Samantha’s murder.
He claimed he was at a shopping mall in San Bernardino County.
A source told CNN that cell phone records and credit card purchases indicated that he was near Samantha’s home at the time of her abduction.
Avila’s sister also noted that they had a family dinner that evening, but he never show up, The Desert Sun reported. That’s when his mother called him and asked where he was.
Avila told her he was at the mall, but surveillance footage showed him leaving a gas station in San Clemente.
The gas station opened less than an hour after Samantha was kidnapped.
Sometime after 9 p.m. that day, he checked into the Comfort Inn in Temecula. But none of the employees testified that they saw Avila with a child.
Following a month-long trial, in April 2005, Avila was found guilty of abduction and murder. Two weeks later, a jury took less than six hours to determine that he should be put to death.
“He is guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!” Samantha’s mother said outside the courtroom. “And that feels really good.”
“Nobody should get away with this. I feel a tremendous sense of relief that Samantha’s fight was not in vain.”
On July 22, 2005, a judge sentenced Avila to death. He later appealed his verdict and claimed that he was given an unfair trial.
In 2014, the court disagreed with his claim, and his appeal was denied.