Man Gets 77 Years to Life for Murder
A Ventura County judge sentenced Oxnard construction worker Cruz Alcantar to state prison for 77 years to life Tuesday for murdering a 41-year-old woman in April 2000.
“Your long history of criminality and violence against women has come to an end,” Superior Court Judge Herbert Curtis told the defendant during the sentencing hearing.
A jury convicted Alcantar in April of first-degree murder in the death of Anna Mendez, a mother of four who occasionally worked as a prostitute. Mendez was found half naked on a sidewalk in La Colonia, with her throat slashed and stab wounds to her chest.
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