Samantha Runnion’s Killer to Die, Jury Says

An Orange County jury decided Monday that Alejandro Avila should be executed for kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering Samantha Runnion, the 5-year-old Stanton girl who disappeared in 2002 during a rash of high-profile child abductions.

As the verdict was read, Samantha’s mother, Erin, sobbed quietly, rocking in her front-row seat as she clutched a tissue.

Avila gazed downward and displayed no reaction. As Assistant Public Defender Denise Gragg huddled next to him, her eyes filled with tears.

At a news conference later, Runnion discussed the difficulty of sitting through daily testimony, imagining her daughter’s pain in the hours after her abduction.

“It’s hard to believe it’s over,” she said. Although she said she was happy that this pedophile wouldn’t be able to hurt a child again, her happiness was bittersweet. “The fact of the matter is, one’s down, but my baby’s still gone.”

The crime attracted national attention during a wave of child abductions that year, including the high-profile kidnapping and slaying of Danielle van Dam, a 7-year-old San Diego girl.

After the arrest of Avila, 30, a Lake Elsinore factory worker, TV interviewer Larry King hailed Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona as “America’s sheriff” and called Samantha “America’s little girl.” President Bush publicly praised Carona for arresting Samantha’s killer.

Avila was convicted two weeks ago. Jurors took less than six hours to decide on a death sentence, announcing that they had reached a verdict about half an hour into the second day of deliberations. Looking at the photographs of Samantha’s bludgeoned body was the most difficult part for many, said foreman Terry Dancey.

“They were graphic, and they certainly were heart-wrenching,” said Dancey, 67, a Newport Beach man who owns a waterproofing company. “If anyone in Orange County had ever deserved the death penalty, then this guy deserved it.”

Avila will be sentenced July 22, exactly three years after he was charged with the crimes.

Avila was convicted after a monthlong trial that centered on DNA evidence tying him to the child he snatched as she played outside her family’s condominium. His DNA was found under her fingernails, indicating she fought to get away, and DNA consistent with her tears was detected inside his car.

“It spoke pretty loud and clear to us,” Dancey said. “The entire jury thought [the defense] had nothing to work with.... They really tried hard, they were valiant, but it was a pretty open-and-shut case.”

Defense attorneys declined to comment.

At the news conference, photos of Samantha and Avila flanked prosecutors, Samantha’s family and Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas. But before the questions started, Rackauckas pulled down Avila’s photo and carried it out of the cameras’ view.

“During my 30-year career in this business, I haven’t seen a case more horrific or more violent wrought on a little girl,” Rackauckas said. “Avila decided that fulfilling his sick, selfish perversion was worth more than [her life].”

According to the foreman, jurors voted four times Thursday, their first day of deliberations. By the afternoon, 10 of the 12 jurors were convinced Avila deserved to die. No deliberations were held Friday, and the other two jurors announced Monday that they had changed their minds after thinking about their decision over the weekend.

Three of the alternate jurors, who chose to wait at the courthouse instead of going home while their colleagues deliberated, spoke to reporters before the news conference.

“There were a lot of sleepless nights,” said Dave, 38, a Lake Forest high school teacher and football coach who declined to give his last name. “We had to see things nobody should have to see,” he said, referring to the crime scene photos of Samantha’s body.

During five days of testimony in the penalty phase, defense attorneys tried to persuade jurors to show Avila mercy because of the brutality they said he experienced as a child, when they alleged that his relatives sexually assaulted and beat him.

“No kid should be brought up like that,” said Lisbeth Heywood, 40, an alternate juror from Rancho Santa Margarita. Still, the federal contractor said, that was not enough to convince her that Avila’s life should be spared.

“He was hurt as a child,” Heywood said. “He should have known better than to hurt another child.”

Jurors had deliberated nine hours before pronouncing Avila guilty of the crimes against Samantha. Deliberations in both phases of the trial were peaceful, the foreman said. “I told them, ‘Don’t dig your heels in too hard,’ ” Dancey said. “We had a good jury.... No one screamed or hollered at anyone if they didn’t agree with what they said.”

Testimony from the first part of the trial showed that Avila grabbed Samantha in the early evening of July 15, 2002, after asking for help finding a lost Chihuahua from the auburn-haired girl in the white blouse, red checkered shorts and pink sandals printed with green frogs. When Samantha asked how tall the puppy was, Avila forced her into his green Ford Thunderbird and drove away.

A hang-glider found her nude body the next day on a cliff overlooking Lake Elsinore. The child had been suffocated, her head battered and her body mutilated from the force of the sexual assault.

A playmate of Samantha’s described the abductor to police, who circulated a picture of a Latino man with a mustache and slicked-back hair. A former girlfriend of Avila’s identified him as the man in the sketch.

The drawing wasn’t the only reason the former girlfriend, Elizabeth Coker, suspected Avila. When they were dating, Coker and Avila had often gone to pick up her child from her father’s home -- in the same Stanton condominium complex where Samantha lived. And the year before Samantha’s murder, a Riverside County jury had acquitted him of molesting Coker’s daughter and another girl.

Among the other evidence tying Avila to the crime were cellphone records and, near the body, tire tracks and shoe prints.

“It was great to have a no-nonsense jury, to follow the evidence to the truth,” said Assistant Dist. Atty. David Brent, the lead prosecutor. “At the end of the day, it comes down to evidence, and that’s what we had here.”

Since Samantha’s death, Runnion has co-founded the Joyful Child Foundation, a nonprofit child safety advocacy group. In January 2004, the organization launched Samantha’s Pride, a program that relies on parents and other caretakers to take turns supervising children and keeping an eye out for predators.

Times staff writers Mai Tran and David Reyes contributed to this report.