Victim recalls assault

More than 40 years after the incident, the 8-year-old girl with pigtails is now a woman.

On Tuesday, she sat across from her attacker in a Santa Ana courtroom, testified against him and then listened as he apologized for his actions.

Newport Beach resident Tali Shapiro, who willingly identified herself and discussed the case with the media after providing her testimony, was lured into Rodney James Alcala’s car and sexually assaulted by him in 1968.

Alcala, 66, was found guilty Feb. 25 of the murder and kidnapping of a 12-year-old Huntington Beach girl in 1979 and four Los Angeles women in the 1970s. The jury now has to decide whether Alcala deserves life in prison without parole or the death penalty.

Hoping to convince the jury that Alcala deserves death, the prosecution detailed his previous offenses — the child molestation of Shapiro in 1968 and the rape of a 15-year-old girl in 1979 — before family members of the victims took the stand to talk about how Alcala’s actions impacted them.

“Rodney Alcala deserves a punishment no less than what he gave his victims,” said Gina Satriano, a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney who is trying the case with Orange County prosecutors because Alcala’s crimes took place in both counties.

Alcala, his long, graying curly hair parted down the middle, faced forward as Shapiro recounted her experiences and asked the victim if he had ever apologized.

“I sincerely regret the harm I have caused you,” Alcala told Shapiro while she sat in the witness stand.

The apology was the first Shapiro had received from her attacker.

“What he did to me, he did to me. Why would he apologize now?” she told reporters after she gave her testimony.

On the day of the crime, Shapiro was walking to school in Hollywood when Alcala offered to give her a ride and show her a “beautiful picture.” She told Alcala she couldn’t talk to strangers, but he told Shapiro he knew her family.

As Alcala lured Shapiro into his car, a witness saw what was happening and followed Alcala home before calling the police — a decision that likely saved her life, Shapiro said.

Prosecutors showed pictures of Alcala’s blood-stained kitchen with a pair of little girl’s white Mary Jane shoes and dress laying discarded on the floor.

Alcala escaped from his house and was free for three years before he was caught. He was convicted of molesting Shapiro in 1972.

Shapiro said she still has trust and commitment issues and recounted her family’s move to Mexico to get away from the trauma.

The victim of Alcala’s 1979 rape, then 15 years old, also took the stand and held a folded piece of paper up to her face, blocking her view of Alcala while she told the jury what happened that February. When Alcala asked her several times if he had apologized to her, the woman said yes, but she didn’t believe it.

“It was fake,” the woman said on the stand.

Alcala told the judge he will call six witnesses, none of whom will be present. Their testimony will be read from the court records. Alcala told the judge he wasn’t sure if he would testify. The penalty portion is expected to continue until Monday.

This is the third time Alcala has been convicted of killing Robin Samsoe, a 12-year-old from Huntington Beach. He was twice sentenced to death, and twice the convictions were overturned on appeal. After it was overturned the second time, DNA evidence linking Alcala to the Los Angeles murders — Jill Barcomb, 18, in 1977; Georgia Wixted, 27, in 1977; Charlotte Lamb, 33, in 1979; and Jill Parenteau, 21, in 1979 — was uncovered.

Alcala is representing himself and maintained throughout the trial that he was at Knott’s Berry Farm applying for a freelance photography job when Robin was kidnapped. He didn’t try to defend himself against the Los Angeles murders.