Samantha Suspect Charged With Murder
Alejandro Avila has been charged with murder, kidnapping and two counts of forcible lewd acts on a child, one week after 5-year-old Samantha Runnion was abducted kicking and screaming while playing with a friend.
The district attorney could seek the death penalty under special circumstances included in the complaint: the murder occurred after a kidnapping and the crime involved lewd acts with a person under 14.
The bare bones complaint against Avila, 27, included very little detail.
Avila's mother, Adelina, said she and her son were watching TV reports about the girl's disappearance.
"I said they should get that person and tie him up alive and burn him," she told ABC's "Good Morning America" Monday.
"And then he said, 'What about the electric chair?' And I said no because he's not going to suffer that much."
Mrs. Avila added: "If my son is found guilty and sentenced to the death penalty I could forgive him but it would be hard."
Avila's arraignment, originally scheduled for Monday afternoon, will be delayed until Aug. 9. He did not enter a plea and was ordered held without bail.
Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackackaus said no decision has been made on whether to seek the death penalty.
"I do want to make one thing very clear," he said. "Anyone who commits an act like this in Orange County will either die in prison of natural causes or be executed. It is almost impossible to overstate the amount of damage this type of crime causes in our community and the entire nation."
Law enforcement officials have said they are 100 per cent certain that Avila is the man responsible.
"We have a tremendous amount of physical evidence. Part of that is DNA," Sheriff Mike Carona said on the CBS News Early Show Monday.
"Mr. Avila made a lot of mistakes at the crime scene," he added. "We've picked up physical evidence throughout, and there will be a tremendous amount of physical and forensic evidence that we'll be turning over and it's very, very solid."
Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackackaus said Sunday he would meet with the girl's family and defense attorneys before making the death penalty decision.
Carona said he has heard that Rackackaus will ask for the death penalty.
Avila was arrested Friday and taken into custody by police at a motel in Santa Ana, Orange County. He was acquitted in 2000 of molesting two 10-year-old girls.
"If the jury had convicted him then, that little girl would be alive," Lewis Davis, the uncle of one of those girls, said Monday.
He said his niece once lived in the same apartment complex as Samantha and played with her.
"I wish we wouldn't waste time on trial and just execute him," he added.
CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports Avila was apparently a frequent visitor to the apartments but it's unclear if he knew Samantha.
Funeral services for Samantha were pending.
The girl's mother, Erin Runnion, broke a long silence late Saturday night and met with well-wishers in the courtyard outside her home, where they have left flowers, candles, cards and toys.
"You are truly wonderful to us," she said, and warned: "Take care of your babies. Take care of each other's babies."
Samantha was playing with a 5-year-old friend just yards from her home when a man who said he was looking for a lost puppy carried her away kicking and screaming.