Clerk’s Killer Gets Life Without Parole
A 23-year-old Lancaster man received a life sentence without the possibility of parole Friday for the May 5 slaying of a Moorpark grocery clerk.
Ventura County Superior Court Judge Vincent J. O’Neill Jr. handed down the maximum sentence to John Charles Alvez, calling the killing of 21-year-old Marco Aurelio Rodriguez “extremely heinous.”
“The punishment fits the crime,” O’Neill said before adding 10 years to the life sentence because Alvez used a gun in the commission of murder and robbery.
Alvez went to the butcher shop where Rodriguez worked on May 5 on the pretext of installing spice racks. He waited for an opportunity, and shot Rodriguez twice in the back of the head before taking about $2,000 from the store’s cash register, prosecutors said.
Alvez’s trial was short--just four days--with the jury only deliberating 80 minutes before reaching its verdict Oct. 25.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
