Samantha
Runnion
July
26,
2002 -
July 15, 2002
Find
A Grave Memorial
A
popular way for people
to get children to their cars is to ask if they have seen their dog or
cat. On July 15, 2002, Alejandro Avila used that line to get Samantha
Runnion
to come to his car and then he grabbed her and pulled her into his car.
Samantha immediately began to fight her kidnapper and get away, yelling
to her friend that she should
go get her
grandmother:
"Help
me! Tell my grandmother!"
Samantha's
friend
Sarah ran to her mother and told her what was going on. It was too
late,
Samantha was gone and that began the short search to find her. Sarah,
who
was only five years old, was able to give a detailed description of the
man and his vehicle as well as his vehicle. The search would last only
a day. Unfortunately, when she was found, Samantha was already dead.
On
July 16, 2002,
a man called and was upset at the fact that he had found the nude body
of a little girl on rural Highway 74 in Riverside County. (read a
transcript
of that call - here)On July 17, 2002, Police
confirmed
that the body found was indeed that of Samantha Runnion. An autopsy was
performed and it was discovered that Samantha
has been
sexually assaulted, had physical trauma and was asphyxiated. It was
thought
that the killed had spent a few hours with her before killing her.
Sheriff
Michael Carona made a statement to the person who killed Samantha:
"Don't
sleep.
Don't eat. Because we're coming after you. We will take every
resource
that's
available
to us to bring you to justice"
On
July 18, 2002,
tips given by people calling in lead the Police to a man named
Alejandro
Avila who was 27 years old and worked as a supervisor on a line
production
in Lake Elsinore. Alejandro of course denied any involvement in the
assault
and murder of Samantha and said that he was 30 miles away on that day.
Luckily, phone records and credit card purchases proved that he was
lying.
It
was discovered
that Alejandro had been accused before, of molesting the nine year old
daughter of his girlfriend as well as another little girl. Alejandro
had
been to the apartment complex where Samantha lived, in 1998 and 1999,
to
visit his girlfriend who lived there. He was acquitted on all of the
charges
related to those accusations, by a jury.
On
July 19, 2002,
Alejandro was arrested and charged with the kidnapping, murder and two
counts of forcible lewd acts on Samantha Runnion. Michael Carona said
there
was evidence from the two crimes scenes involved. Those scenes were
outside
of Samantha's home and where her body had been found. Michael said that
Alejandro messed up a lot during his crimes:
"Mr.
Avila made a lot of mistakes at the crime scene"
On
July 24, 2002,
Samantha was given a funeral at the Crystal Cathedral with a crowd of
over
5,500 people attending. Given to the mourners was a program with a
drawing
that Samantha had done of a girl in a red dress, a house with a heart
under
the blue sky and her favorite saying "Be Brave".
One
day after he
daughters funeral, Erin Runnion went on the Larry King show and
expressed
her feelings about what had happened to her daughter and the fact that
this man had previously been let go for similar charges:
"I
blame
every juror who let him go, every juror who sat on that trial and
believed
this man over
those
little
girls, I will never understand. And that is why he was out. And that is
why his
sickness
was
allowed to do this"
August
of 2002 came
and the D.A. was seeking the death penalty due to the murder taking
place
after a kidnapping and the fact that the crime involved lewd acts with
a child. That same month, Alejandro plead not guilty, being represented
by a Public Defender named Denise Gragg. Denise requested a delay in
the
arraignment, asking for a month long delay. An Orange County judge
denied
that re-quest and a hearing was scheduled for September 16th.
Erin
faced her daughters
killer in court and then again, went on the Larry King show to talk
about
it:
"I
tried to
prepare myself for it, but there was no way I could. It was awful. It
was
awful. I don't
know
what
it is for everybody else, but I just -- I want so much from that
person.
I want him
to
undo what
he did. And I want to see some remorse. I want him to know the
magnitude
of
what happened.
And we can't get that, and so I was just in instantly flooded with
tears"
In
the courtroom
that day was one of the girls who had been sexually abused by Alejandro
in 1999. Also, Orange County's top law enforcement officials, Mike
Carona
and Tony Rackauckas sat together just a few rows behind Erin. Erin and
Mike hugged as she silently thanked him for all he had done.
At
4:00 p.m., the jurors
were seated and a foreman gave the binder which contained the verdicts,
to a deputy. There was no visible emotion on their faces as the
verdicts
were read.
Alejandro
Avila,
30 years old at the time, was found guilty in April of 2005, of
kidnapping,
sexually assaulting and murdering Samantha Runnion. The jury was in
deliberations
for less than nine hours before they found him guilty. While the
verdicts
were read, Alejandro kept his head down, said nothing and showed no
emotion
at all. The
people
in the court
room had to be quieted down after "YES"
could be heard when the first
guilty
verdict was read. Erin, who was seated in the front row a few feet from
Alejandro, cried at the verdicts.
The
jury again showed
no emotion as they were lead from the court room after hearing from the
judge that they were not to talk about the case. At this point, the job
of the jury was not over, they would now need to decide the fate of
Alejandro.
A decision needed to be made in the penalty phase of the trial. Would
Alejandro
get life with no
possibility for
parole, or would he get the death penalty? The jury would have to
decide.
The
defense would
be calling members of Alejandro's family to the stand to testify as for
why they felt he should not get the death penalty. In an elevator,
shortly
after the verdicts were read, a woman could be heard shouting, in
reference
to the jury who let him go the first time he was accused:
"What
an animal! How could that jury let him go"
A
man
on the escalator
held up a picture of Samantha, showing it to television crews and
shouted:
"Justice!
Justice for Samantha!"
After
court, Erin
spoke to the crowd outside. She thanked the jury for coming to the
right
conclusions and finding Alejandro guilty and said that it brought a
great
sense of relief. She shouted:
"He
is guilty!
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! And that feels really good!"
Erin
started a foundation
called The Joyful Child Foundation which would help parents protect
their
children. At that time, she spoke to anyone who might have intentions
of
hurting a child:
"We
outnumber
you," she said sternly. "We're getting organized and will not allow you
to
get
away with
this"
Erin
also said that
she hopes other families and children will be able to get strength from
the verdicts in Samantha's case:
"Crimes
against
children are preventable if we work together as communities"
Sheriff
Mike Carona
was in tears as he gave thanks that Erin had not held it against them
for
their inability to bring Samantha home, alive.
Alejandro
Avila was
sentenced to death for what he did to Samantha Runnion. Erin confronted
him in court:
"I
know she
looked at you with those amazing brown eyes and you still wanted to
kill
her
and
I don't
understand it, and I never will"
Seeming
to ignore
anything she was saying, Alejandro sat without moving and looked away.
Alejandro said nothing as Judge William Froeberb spoke about the
verdict:
"For
the temporary
gratification of his lust, the defendant destroyed an entire
family's
future.
He
has forfeited
his right to live"
Alejandro's
sentence
will automatically be appealed and his defense attorney said that she
would
not be surprised if the issue of incompetent defense was the reason:
"I
can't help
but think he would have gotten life if I had presented a better
case"
Assistant
Public Defender Denise Gragg
Denise
added that
she had advised him not to speak at all, in court. Assistant District
Attorney,
David Brent, said that he was satisfied with the verdict and that
justice
was served, though he said:
"there's
no joy that we're sentencing someone to death
row"
|
Joyful
Child Foundation
The
Joyful Child
Foundation was established in her memory. It aims to facilitate the
development
of child watch programs in local communities through the U.S. through
the
Samantha's Pride program. In addition, it also seeks to encourage
research
and development into the psyche of predators and develop communication
programs for parents and children.
|
CHERISHING
OUR CHILDREN
Los
Angeles Memorial
Honors Young Victims
Samantha
Runnion
was just shy of her sixth birthday when she was kidnapped outside her
home
in southern California, sexually assaulted, and murdered by a child
predator.
An investigation by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, the FBI,
and
other law enforcement agencies helped identify her killer and put him
behind
bars.
On
July 26—the FBI’s
own birthday—Samantha would have turned 11. That day, we joined with
her
mother Erin Runnion in honoring Samantha and all child victims and
survivors
by planting a tree and dedicating a permanent memorial outside our
field
office in Los Angeles.
“I
am
so grateful
to the FBI for honoring Samantha with this beautiful ceremony and
everlasting
memorial,” Erin Runnion said. “I hope that those who were touched by
Samantha’s
death will join us commemorating her birthday and remembering the gift
that she will always be. … In honor of all child victims and survivors,
may this memorial remind us all to be brave, to be vigilant, to cherish
our children and learn from their joy.”
Return
To Samantha's Story
Read
a transcript of the 911 caller who found Samantha's body.
Read
about Samantha's funeral.
Read
news articles related to Samantha's death.
Death
occurred in the state of Massachusetts
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you see printed on this page, please see my DISCLAIMER
statement.
THANK YOU!
|
1-800-422-4453 