Girl’s Killer Sentenced a 2nd Time to Gas Chamber

Rodney James Alcala was sentenced for the second time Wednesday to die in the gas chamber for the 1979 murder of a 12-year-old Huntington Beach girl, a crime described by Orange County Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin as “vicious and malevolent in every sense of the word.”

McCartin scoffed at protests from Alcala--whose first conviction was overturned two years ago--that he did not murder Robin Samsoe. Her body was found in the foothills of Angeles National Forest on July 2, 1979, 12 days after she was last seen alive on a bicycle near the Huntington Beach pier.

“Hogwash,” McCartin said. “He’s as guilty as anybody who has ever come through this department.”

McCartin, known for his soft-spoken and low-key demeanor, let his voice rise slightly at times as he spoke about Alcala, who has a long history of sexually abusing and assaulting young girls.

Robin’s mother, Maryann Frazier, was tearful and shaking when she told family members after the sentencing: “It’s finally over. Let’s go home.”

First Convicted in 1980

Alcala, a 41-year-old part-time photographer from Monterey Park, will return to San Quentin’s Death Row for the second time.

He was convicted and sentenced to die for the Samsoe slaying in 1980. But he won a new trial two years ago when the California Supreme Court ruled that the jury should never have been told about his criminal past during the guilt phase of his first trial.

He was convicted for the second time in May, and on June 20 the jury returned another death verdict.

Alcala’s attorneys filed a 45-page motion seeking a new trial, but McCartin denied the request Wednesday.

The judge then reviewed Alcala’s history of violence against young girls, dating back to 1968. The Samsoe murder was heinous enough, the judge said, but Alcala’s past made a death verdict even more justified.

Earlier Attacks

In 1968, Alcala attacked an 8-year-old girl he had picked up as she walked to school. Authorities believe that the girl, who had been raped, would have died of a brutal beating Alcala gave her with a pipe if police had not broken down a door to save her.

Alcala was sent to prison for that attack and later returned to prison for an attack on a 14-year-old girl. He was on parole when he attacked and raped a 15-year-old girl in 1978, just four months before the Samsoe slaying. He was out on bail facing trial for that attack when the Samsoe girl disappeared.

The second jury did not learn about Alcala’s past until the penalty phase. Prosecutors at the first trial, however, had brought up the three previous attacks in an effort to convince the jurors that there were similarities between those attacks and what happened to Robin.