A man convicted in a decades-old murder in Santa Maria will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
A Santa Barbara County Judge handed down the sentence, which does not include the possibility of parole, on Friday morning to Aloysius Winthrop James, 59, who was arrested in Georgia in April 2024.
On September 18, 1988, 30-year-old Ofelia Sandoval was raped and murdered. She had reportedly been strangled to death.
After about a year of investigation, her case went cold.
But in the early 2000s, according to the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office, the Department of Justice was able to develop a DNA profile of an unknown male from items found in Sandoval’s room at the Town Center Motel.
While that DNA did not match any profiles in the national database at the time, further investigation eventually identified James as the suspect and investigators were able to match his DNA to samples recovered during Sandoval’s autopsy.
The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office says sentencing marks “the culmination of almost 38 years of work on the murder of Ofelia Sandoval and the beginning of some sense of closure for Ofelia’s family.”
They says four generations of the victims family have, for decades, supported the investigation and prosecution, with some speaking out in court during sentencing about the Ofelia’s life and the impact her death had on them and the community.
“The bravery, dedication, and resilience of Ofelia’s three children Marcelino, Maricela and Alex is truly remarkable,” the DA’s Office stated.
