Tears, Anger For Samantha
The penalty phase begins next week in the trial of Alejandro Avila, convicted Thursday in the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of five-year-old Samantha Runnion. The panel could recommend the death penalty.
"I guess I feel a tremendous sense of relief," Samantha's mother, Erin Runnion, said after the guilty verdict was announced. "In a word that's what I feel, that Samantha's fight was not in vain."
Runnion cried in the courtroom as the jury returned its verdict, reports The Early Show National Correspondent Hattie Kauffman.
But, outside court, the tears turned to anger: "He is guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! And that feels good because nobody should get away with this!"
It was the summer of 2002 when Samantha was snatched from the front yard of her Southern California home.
Samantha's nude body was found near a remote mountain road. Two days later, police arrested Avila, a thirty-year-old factory worker. Prosecutors told the jury Samantha's DNA was found inside his car, and suggested the DNA came from her tears.
"With this conviction, first degree murder, special circumstances, it means that Alejandro Avila will never get out," stressed Orange County District Attorney Anthony Rackauckas.
In her grief, Samantha's mother remembered other victims of sexual predators.
"In honor of Samantha, in honor of Jessica (Lunsford), and Molly Fish, and Polly Klaas, and Adam Walsh, how many children do we have to take away before we as Americans get organized? We outnumber you so many times over there is no excuse and we're not going to let you get away with this anymore!"
"I think Erin Runnion did a great job yesterday of describing exactly where America needs to be," says Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona, who headed the probe of Samantha's murder.
Speaking to The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith Friday, he continued, "People need to get sick and tired of the fact that kids are being taken out of their communities, that they're being preyed upon, that they're being murdered, raped, and until America gets their hands around protecting our kids, and protecting them from the sexual predators, we're going to see more and more of this take place.
"The good news is, I think America' got the message."
Carona called the verdict "an affirmation" of his statement when Avila was arrested. At the time, he said he was "100 percent sure" Avila was Samantha's killer.
"I'd love to see the death penalty" in the case, Carona added. "But, frankly, right now, given the fact that we have a first degree murder conviction, with special circumstances, Alejandro Avila will never see the streets again. So if nothing else, the children of America are safe because he'll never hit the streets again."