Man Guilty in Slaying at Butcher Shop

After deliberating for only 80 minutes, a Ventura County jury found a Lancaster man guilty of murder in the slaying of a Moorpark butcher shop employee last year.

John Charles Alvez, 23, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for fatally shooting Marco Aurelio Rodriguez.

Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Jim Ellison said he was surprised by how quickly the jury returned from deliberations, but was not alarmed by the verdicts.

“The evidence against Mr. Alvez was so overwhelming,” Ellison said.

Alvez went to the butcher shop where Rodriguez worked on May 5, 1995, under the pretext of installing spice racks at the butcher shop.

He waited for a opportunity and shot the 21-year-old employee twice in the back of the head before taking about $2,000 from the store cash register, Ellison said.

Witnesses saw Alvez leave the shop with a white sack and get into a red car. Authorities later watched as Alvez retrieved the sack full of money from his car at his Lancaster home. They also seized a .22-caliber gun, the same weapon used in the shooting.

The Alvez trial was short: only four days of testimony. He was convicted of murder and robbery, and the jury found special allegations of lying in wait and murder in the commission of a robbery to be true.

Alvez is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 6.