Avila’s Cell Use at Odds With Alibi

Alejandro Avila’s cell phone and credit card records indicate he was in south Orange County--near the area where 5-year-old Samantha Runnion’s body was discovered--in the hours after her kidnapping, a law enforcement source said Tuesday.

The records appear to contradict Avila’s assertion that he was at Ontario Mills mall in San Bernardino County at the time Samantha was abducted just after 6 p.m. July 15, the source said.

Avila, who is charged with kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering the Stanton girl, maintains he had nothing to do with Samantha’s abduction. Avila’s mother said that she called him the night of the kidnapping and that he told her he was at the mall.

Authorities are trying to piece together the hours between Samantha’s abduction the evening of July 15 and the discovery of her body the next afternoon off a mountain road in Cleveland National Forest.

A source familiar with the investigation said Tuesday that preliminary tests of fibers found on Samantha’s body matched fibers found in two cars Avila had access to: a green Ford Thunderbird owned by Avila and another car that belongs to a relative. Detectives were unsure Tuesday what the fibers are.

There is no evidence that Samantha was bound, sources said, but detectives believe she scratched her attacker. Preliminary tests of DNA samples taken from Samantha’s body match a DNA sample taken from Avila, officials said.

Law enforcement authorities can track a cell phone user’s movements through data left at nearby cell sites. According to the Federal Communications Commission, many mobile phones manufactured after 1998 store a record of the local cellular site and base station used for calls.

‘A Cleaner Trail’

“Fortunately for us, if he hadn’t used his cell phone or his credit cards, he would have left a cleaner trail,” a source close to the investigation said.

Authorities would not disclose details of the phone records, but Avila’s mother said that when she called her son’s cell phone at 8 or 9 p.m. July 15, she heard the sounds of airplanes. Ontario Mills mall is near Ontario International Airport.

Avila will enter a plea in Orange County Superior Court next month. Special circumstances filed along with the murder charges will allow the district attorney’s office to seek the death penalty.

Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas said he will meet with his staff and Samantha’s family about whether to seek death and described the case as his office’s priority.

Avila said in an interview with The Times that detectives told him they had found fibers on Samantha’s body that linked him to the slaying.

Blood Sample Taken

Officers also took a sample of Avila’s blood and photographed a scratch on his leg, he said. Police believe Samantha scratched her abductor in a struggle to escape.

They said the assailant held Samantha for several hours after the kidnapping, sexually assaulting and eventually asphyxiating her sometime July 16.

Her nude body was found in the open off a mountain road, posed in a way that the FBI said amounted to a “calling card” and a warning that the killer would strike again.

Avila said that he tried to cooperate with officers during questioning Thursday but demanded an attorney when their tone turned hostile.

His family blamed a vindictive former girlfriend for pointing police in Avila’s direction.

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Times staff writers Greg Krikorian and Phil Willon contributed to this report.