Jury Takes Less Than Day to Convict Man in Slaying

In a case that took nearly six years to come to trial, a Van Nuys Superior Court jury deliberated less than a day before convicting a former North Hollywood man of kidnaping, raping and killing his ex-girlfriend.

Ruben Dario Garcia, 25, who eluded police following the 1989 Christmas Eve slaying and even served a jail sentence in New York on drug charges before being brought back to California, will be sentenced July 20. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“This is a very scary guy,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Shellie Samuels, who persisted in having Garcia extradited from New York to face trial. “I’m pleased that he will forever be off the streets.”

Garcia was found guilty of murder with the special circumstances that it was committed during a rape and kidnaping. The jury could not reach agreement on a third special circumstance allegation that he lay in wait to commit it, which was dropped. But the panel needed to find Garcia guilty of only one of the special circumstances to make Garcia liable to a sentence of life without parole.

Garcia, a former gang member, was also found guilty of kidnaping, rape and attempted murder, as well as attempted kidnaping and two counts of assault with a knife in connection with an incident a week before the slaying, involving his ex-girlfriend and her roommate.

The slaying took place at the Van Nuys home of Anna Alfaro’s parents. Alfaro and her new boyfriend, Luis Diaz, had just delivered Christmas gifts when Garcia jumped out of the bushes, witnesses testified at the trial.

He pointed a gun at Diaz and grabbed Alfaro by the hair. Garcia asked Diaz for the keys to his car, but Diaz refused. Garcia pulled the trigger twice, but the gun did not fire. Garcia then struck Alfaro on the head and dragged her off to an alcove behind a garage, where he raped her.

Diaz called police, who arrived to see Garcia point his gun at Alfaro’s head. As the officers got out of their car, Garcia shot Alfaro twice in the head and then fired shots at the officers, who ducked for cover. By the time additional officers had arrived, Garcia had disappeared.

New York authorities learned about the California murder warrant for Garcia after he had been arrested there several times on drug charges using various aliases, but they insisted Garcia finish his New York sentence before transferring him to California in 1994.