Pomona serial killer sentenced to death for 1988 Virginia slayings
Pictured (from top): Alfredo Prieto, Stacey Siegrist and Anthony Gianuzzi.
A serial killer from Pomona was sentenced to death today in Virginia for murdering two people there in 1988.
Alfredo Prieto, 45, has been convicted of three murders and is believed to have committed six more. The nine killings were committed between 1988 and 1990.
Five of Prieto's suspected killings were carried out in the Ontario area, with the other four occurring in Virginia.
Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows gave Prieto two death sentences today -- for the murder and rape of Rachael A. Raver, 22, and for the murder of Warren H. Fulton III, 22.
The George Washington University students, who were described as college sweethearts, were shot to death in Reston, Va. on Dec. 3, 1988.
"What you did to those two young people was vile and horrible and beyond the pale," Bellows said before imposing the death sentences, according to the Washington Post. The punishment was recommended last month by a jury.
Prieto's first murder conviction came in 1992 for the Sept. 2, 1990 rape and murder in Ontario of 15-year-old Yvette Woodruff. Prieto was sentenced to death for Woodruff's slaying.
As Prieto sat on Death Row in California in 2006, investigators in Virginia linked him through DNA and other evidence to four unsolved killings, including Raver and Fulton's.
Authorities in Virginia say that Prieto's DNA was found at the Arlington, Va. crime scene where on May 10, 1988 Tina Jefferson, 24, was found shot to death and raped.
Ballistics testing also linked Prieto to the shooting death on Sept. 2, 1988 of Manuel F. Sermeno, 27. Sermeno's body was discovered inside a burning car in Prince William, Va.
After prosecutors in Virginia extradited Prieto for those slayings, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department's Cold Case Unit linked him through DNA and ballistics testing to four unsolved killings from 1990.
A sergeant in the unit said last month that Prieto, an alleged Pomona Northside gang member, was linked by DNA to the May 5, 1990 killings of Stacey Siegrist, 19, and Ontario resident Anthony Gianuzzi, 21.
Authorities believe Siegrist and Gianuzzi were abducted in the Ontario area about two days before they were found shot to death in Rubidoux. Siegrist, of Montclair, had also been sexually assaulted.
Ballistics testing also implicates Prieto in the June 2, 1990 killings of a married couple from Ontario.
Herbert and Lula Farley were collecting recyclables in an alley behind a supermarket in Ontario when they were ambushed.
Lula Farley, 71, was shot to death behind the market, and Herbert Farley, 65, was abducted. He was later found shot to death in Rubidoux.
Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Scott Brown has said that Virginia authorities are unwilling to release Prieto for further prosecution in California because of California's lengthy appeals process for Death Row inmates.
Virginia authorities estimated that Prieto would be put to death in five to seven years, Brown said.
Brown said that sheriff's detectives will present their cases later this month to the Riverside County District Attorney's Office.
He said that with charges filed, an arrest warrant will be issues for Prieto. If his convictions in Virginia are overturned, he can then be sent back to California for prosecution.
"If something ever goes wrong in Virginia ... we can bring him back and prosecute him," Brown said.
A criminal filing in the case will also help to provide justice to the families of the victims, Brown said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
I hope those of you who read this in California start taking action. States very rarely demand that a person already on death row be tried in another state (it costs a lot of tax payer money). However, because California is notoriously a complete joke, Virginia attorneys decided that Prieto's murder victims actually deserved JUSTICE. After Prieto was given the death sentence, it took ONE year for the VA Supreme Court to issue a decision confirming the death sentence. In California, it typically takes over 15 years, just for the first phase of appeals.
Please, people, demand accountability from your government. There are serial killers who's guilt was never in doubt who have been sitting in your death row since the 70's. DO SOMETHING!!!
Hi there, You've done a fantastic job. I'll certainly digg it and individually recommend to my friends. I'm sure they'll be benefited from this site.
Magnificent goods from you, man. I've bear in mind your stuff prior to and you're simply too wonderful. I actually like what you have got right here, really like what you are stating and the way in which in which you assert it. You make it enjoyable and you continue to take care of to keep it sensible. I can't wait to read far more from you. That is actually a wonderful site.