High Court Upholds Death Sentence in Slaying of Elderly Grocer

The state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the death sentence of a Riverside County man who robbed an elderly grocer and then shot him execution-style.

In a 6-1 decision, the court ruled that the prosecutor at the trial of David Rey Fierro acted legally when he told jurors that Fierro’s death would not be their “personal responsibility.”

The majority, led by Justice Armand Arabian, said the prosecutor was merely trying to tell the jury that Fierro was responsible for his own plight.

Dissenting Justice Stanley Mosk said the prosecutor, in a close case, “sought to minimize the jury’s sense of its responsibility.”

Fierro, now 30, was convicted of robbing and murdering Sam Alessie in front of the small grocery store that he had owned for 40 years in the town of Glen Avon.

The court said Trudy Alessie, Sam’s wife of 50 years and co-owner of the store, was confronted by a robber as the couple approached their pickup truck. She handed him money from her purse and he headed for the other side of the truck. She then heard shots and saw Sam lying on the ground bleeding.

Other witnesses to the January, 1985, killing said they saw Sam Alessie shot once, then shot again point-blank after he fell to the ground. His car keys and wallet were missing.

Fierro denied the killing, and offered evidence that someone else had been seen leaving the scene. The defense at the penalty phase also presented evidence that Fierro was a loving husband and father of three children.

The court found several errors by Superior Court Judge Gerald Schulte, including his failure to explain the shackling of Fierro during the preliminary hearing and his examining information in a probation report that was not presented to the jury. But Arabian said the errors could not have affected the verdict.