COUNTYWIDE : Ex-Bouncer Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison

A former bodybuilder and bouncer received a maximum sentence of 30 years to life in prison Friday for shooting his ex-girlfriend to death.

James Allen Booker, 29, was convicted of first-degree murder last month for the death of Maria DelMar Alcocer, 26, who had obtained a restraining order against him in the months before the shooting.

Alcocer’s family, in letters and testimony to Superior Court Judge Richard L. Weatherspoon, said they hoped Booker would spend the rest of his life in prison for a crime that has devastated their family, especially her two daughters, who are not related to the defendant.

“I am 6,” one daughter wrote. “My Mommy was Maria. I feel sad. I want James to be in jail for 1,000 years.”

The victim’s 8-year-old daughter pleaded in her letter, “Please keep him in jale for 1,000,000,000! years.”

Alcocer was shot five times on Oct. 9, 1994, as she talked on the phone in her Orange apartment. She had just put her two children to bed in another room after spending the day at Disneyland celebrating her oldest girl’s birthday.

Police and prosecutors said Booker had taken a gun from a friend without permission earlier that day and broken into Alcocer’s apartment about 11 p.m. Neighbors called to report gunfire, and witnesses said they recognized Booker running away.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Carolyn Kirkwood contended that Booker couldn’t accept that Alcocer had a new boyfriend.

Booker testified during his trial that he went to the apartment intending to shoot himself, not Alcocer, and can’t remember what happened.

After the killing, he told a friend that he had “just had it with her,” according to the pre-sentencing report.