Jury gets Alcala case

The jury has begun deliberations in the third death penalty trial for a man charged with murdering and kidnapping a 12-year-old Huntington Beach girl more than three decades ago.

Rodney James Alcala is being tried for the murder of Robin Samsoe in 1979 and four Los Angeles women in the late 1970s.

Two days of closing arguments wrapped up Tuesday with Alcala, acting as his own attorney, completely ignoring the Los Angeles cases. The suspected serial killer spent more than three hours trying to convince the jury of his innocence in Robin’s death.

“This is the case he wants to fight. This is the case he wants a break on,” Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy said. “He wants to get away with this murder. He’s living to get away with this murder.”

Alcala argued he was at Knott’s Berry Farm applying to be a freelance photographer for a high school disco contest at the time of Robin’s disappearance.

“It’s not something I’ve dreamed up to create an alibi, because I don’t need an alibi,” Alcala said.

Murphy argued that Robin and a friend were approached and photographed by Alcala, who then offered her a ride to ballet class June 20, 1979. She wasn’t seen again until her skeletal remains were found in the woods of Sierra Madre.

Robin, a devoted ballet dancer, was going to be late for her class and voluntarily got into Alcala’s car, Murphy said.

“Some point in Huntington Beach, she realized he wasn’t taking her to ballet class,” Murphy said.

Murphy argued that Alcala straightened and chopped off his long, permed hair when composite sketches of Robin’s killer began circulating.

Alcala also changed the carpet in his car and began selling his possessions to move — telling each of his friends and family he was going to different places, Murphy said.

Alcala said he began preparing to move months before Robin went missing and showed Recycler ads he had placed the prior April.

Alcala admitted to lying to his family about where he was going, stating he didn’t want anyone to know — a fact Murphy jumped on.

“That is exactly what we’d expect a killer with pressure on him to do,” he said.

Murphy presented evidence that he said linked Alcala to Robin’s murder and that of the four Los Angeles women — Jill Barcomb, Georgia Wixted, Charlotte Lamb and Jill Parenteau.

Alcala was twice convicted of Robin’s kidnapping and murder and twice sentenced to death, but the convictions were overturned on appeal. It wasn’t until his second conviction that DNA evidence linked Alcala to one of the Los Angeles cases.

Officials decided to prosecute all five cases at once and hold the trial in Orange County, because Alcala had already been prosecuted there twice, Murphy said.

If Alcala is convicted and given the death penalty, the case will go to an automatic appeal.

Before closing arguments wrapped up, Murphy warned the jury not to think of Alcala as the underdog and feel sorry for him.

Robin, he said, is the underdog.

“Part of what he enjoys is getting away with it. That’s what gets him off,” he said. “He wants so badly to get away with this. He wants so badly a free murder.”