22-Year-Old Pleads Not Guilty in Killing

A 22-year-old man charged with a crime that could send him to death row if convicted pleaded not guilty Tuesday to robbing and killing a Moorpark grocery clerk.

Investigators arrested John Charles “Charlie” Alvez at his Lancaster home May 5, 12 hours after 21-year-old Marco Aurelio Rodriguez was gunned down in the butcher shop his parents owned.

Investigators said they found Alvez with more than $1,000 he is suspected of stealing from the cash register Rodriguez was tending.

Deputy Dist. Atty. James D. Ellison said Alvez is eligible for the death penalty because he is accused of murder during a robbery. Ellison and investigators declined to discuss details of the case.

But Alvez’s mother said her son and Rodriguez, who lived in Canoga Park, were friends. She attended her son’s arraignment Tuesday, but declined to comment.

“It’s something that I would never expect him to do,” she said in a previous interview. His attorney, Douglas Daily, said the short, pudgy and cherubic Alvez has never been in jail before.

“He is scared to death,” Daily said.

Ellison said prosecutors have yet to decide if they will seek the death penalty.