Avila’s Family Supports Him on the Stand

Trying to blunt the prosecution’s contention that Alejandro Avila had a propensity for molesting girls, the mother and three sisters of the man accused of murdering 5-year-old Samantha Runnion testified Tuesday they had never seen signs that he was a sexual abuser.

They testified in Orange County Superior Court that young girls who were related to one of Avila’s former girlfriends enjoyed seeing him.

Samantha’s body was found at a hang-glider’s launching spot off Ortega Highway the day after a man pretending to look for a lost puppy forced the Stanton youngster into his car as she played near her family’s condominium.

The girl was sexually assaulted before she was killed, according to investigators, and prosecutors have tried to strengthen their case with testimony from three girls related to one of Avila’s former girlfriends that he molested them.

Avila’s mother and three of his sisters testified Tuesday that they never noticed him pay special attention to the girls and that the girls never appeared frightened of him.

In 1999, when he was dating Elizabeth Ann Coker, Avila shared his one-bedroom Lake Elsinore apartment with her, his mother and one of his sisters. After the mother and sister moved out, two of his other sisters moved in.

Coker’s daughter adored Avila and told him he was like her father, said sister Elvira Avila. Even after the girl’s mother broke up with Avila and moved out, she said, the child was still eager to see him when she came over to pick up things they had left behind.

“She would run up to him crying, ‘Oh, I miss you,’ ” Elvira Avila testified. “It was kind of cute.”

The sister also testified that when she saw Coker a few months after the breakup, Coker said she was planning some sort of revenge against her brother. Elvira Avila suggested she egg his car, but, she said, Coker balked.

“No,” Elvira Avila said Coker told her, “I got something bigger planned.”

Deputy Public Defender Phil Zalewski declined to comment after court recessed on whether Avila was implying the revenge plan included filing false molestation charges. When Alejandro Avila was charged with molesting two of the girls in 2001, jurors in Riverside County acquitted him. He was never charged with molesting the third girl.

Prosecutors say Avila may have killed Samantha to ensure she could not accuse him of molesting her.

Avila’s lawyers, who previously have implied to jurors that sheriff’s investigators planted Samantha’s DNA in Avila’s car, on Tuesday questioned the Orange County crime lab’s practices for ensuring evidence was not contaminated.

A forensic scientist from the crime lab acknowledged that some items were not in compliance with FBI standards, such as uncalibrated thermometers, but said it would not affect the results of DNA testing.

“They’re not related specifically to the analysis of samples,” said Richard Keister, who is in charge of the lab’s quality assurance program. “In my opinion,” he added later, “the things found do not affect the reliability of the results.”

Prosecution witnesses have testified that Samantha’s DNA was found inside Avila’s green Ford and that his DNA was found under her fingernails.

The 30-year-old could face the death penalty if convicted.