Death Penalty Won’t Be Sought in Slaying

Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury announced Wednesday that he will not seek the death penalty against John Charles Alvez in the May slaying of a Moorpark grocery clerk.

Prosecutors allege that the 22-year-old Lancaster man shot and killed Marco Aurelio Rodriguez, 21, during a robbery at his family’s Carniceria Rodriguez butcher shop May 4.

Alvez delivered spices to the store every week and knew Rodriguez, who was tending the cash register at the time of the shooting.

Investigators later said they found Alvez with more than $1,000 they believe he took from the register.

“Everybody agrees that it was a horrendous, coldblooded killing,” said Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. James Ellison.

But Alvez had no criminal record prior to the shooting, no history of violence, “basically not even any moving violations, such as traffic tickets,” Ellison said.

State law allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty for anyone who kills while committing another felony--such as robbery. But Ellison said Bradbury decided that aggravating factors in the Alvez case did not outweigh the defendant’s clean record.

Alvez is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Ventura County Superior Court on charges of murder, robbery and the special circumstance that the slaying was committed during the course of a felony.

If the jury finds that a special circumstance existed in Rodriguez’s death, state law requires the judge to sentence Alvez to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Ellison said.

Alvez’s attorneys could not be reached for comment Wednesday.